Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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We couldn't figure it out. For some reason, the mice suddenly liked our house so much. All I know is after not having had that problem, we suddenly were invaded. Well, I planned very strategically to be gone, of course, when they invaded the house. In fact the reason we know that they were there is because my wife found, well let's just say some signs of them in the silverware drawer of all places.
Now, she cleaned all that up a couple of times in the uh, shall we say, wash cycle. And then she set a trap in there. She got one right away. You know what she said? "There might just be another one." So she set the trap again. Within minutes it went off again...same drawer. Two down. Well we thought it was over. What do I mean we? I was gone. And then she was staying up late that night to do some paperwork, and she heard the trap go again. She got a third one.
I've got to tell you, she got five mice in the same drawer in 12 hours. What stupid animals—all of them going right for that drawer. I call them the Kamikaze Mice. Actually, my wife's theory made the most sense. She said, "I think they were trapped by their own habits." Well, you know, there's a flip side to that habit idea.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Saved By a Habit."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of Daniel 6, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 5. You know Daniel was a Jewish prodigy in Darius' Persian Kingdom, and he'd become someone who had risen to a leadership position. Unfortunately, as usually happens, some people were jealous of that. So the plan to get him was this: "These men said, 'We will never find any basis for charges against Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of God.' The royal advisors and all the other leaders went to the king and said that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next 30 days except to you, O King, shall be thrown into the lion's den. So the king issued that decree."
"Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before." Now we know that leads to the wonderful deliverance, ultimately, of Daniel from the lion's den. Daniel has always been cited as a great example of taking a stand, and he is. Of trusting God in a dangerous situation, and he did. But he's also an example of a very practical strength that could be the missing ingredient in your spiritual consistency. Daniel built good spiritual habits. Three times a day he went and prayed.
Now, when the situation here is not conducive to his regular praying, even dangerous, he does it anyway. With mice in our house, their habits did them in. But a good habit can save you; make you do the right thing when you don't feel like it. A habit is simply consciously choosing to do something so many times that eventually you do it automatically.
You need to set up your life with patterns that guide you to the right thing. For example, I always have my quiet time with Jesus at the same spot in my morning schedule between two things I always do. I don't always feel like it, but I've programmed myself to do the right thing. Many mornings I've got to tell you I wasn't going to do it, I didn't feel like doing it. My habit has saved me, and the Lord has surprised me.
It works in giving too. You take the Lord's money right off the top. See, there are spiritual disciplines you know you need to get into; time you need to spend. Do it at the same time, the same place until you do it automatically.
Program your life to glorify God in what would normally be really lost because you don't feel like it or you forget it. Well, it's in those times you'll be saved by a habit.