Your Habits Determine Your Spiritual Growth

by Rick Warren — September 11, 2024
From 40 Days of Prayer

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

1 Corinthians 9:25 (NIV)

Many people consider Tom Brady to be the greatest quarterback ever to have played in the National Football League. In 2021, he won his seventh championship ring as the oldest player to appear in a Super Bowl. How did he get to be so good?

There’s a whole list of things Brady did to stay in peak performance mentally, physically, and emotionally, including drinking 20 ounces of water as soon as he woke up every morning. He developed healthy habits that paid off for him.

You grow when you develop good habits. This applies to every area of your life, including your spiritual growth. When you build good habits, you’ll have good character. If you have good character, you’ll have a great destiny. Your character is the sum total of your habits.

The Bible says, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17 NIV).

You don’t get God’s blessing for knowing the right thing to do. You get God’s blessing for doing the right thing and making it a habit in your life. How do you build habits? Through repetition and practice. Study after study shows you have to do something—whether it’s exercise, diet, or a spiritual habit—every day for six weeks before it becomes a habit.

Think about developing the habit of a daily Bible study. If you do a few days and then skip a day, and then do a few more days and then skip another day, it will be hard to develop a habit. But when you can discipline yourself to study your Bible every day, eventually it will become second nature; it will become a habit.

When you take the time to develop a good habit, you can then use it for the rest of your life to help you grow and be strong. Successful people are just normal people who decide to develop good habits that stay with them for the rest of their lives. You determine your habits, and your habits determine you.

The Bible says it like this: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25 NIV).

The good habits you build in your spiritual life are going to pay off forever in eternity.

Talk It Over

  • This time next year, how do you want to have grown spiritually? What will it take to get there? Write out a step-by-step plan to keep you on track.
  • Too often we set goals with unrealistic timelines or expectations. You don’t have to get it all done this week! What is one small thing you can do every day that, over time, will make a difference in your spiritual growth?
  • How does accountability with another person help you grow spiritually and in every other area of your life?

Give hope, prayer, and encouragement below. Post a comment & talk about it.