MAKE SMALL CHANGES AND MAKE IT EASY

“…Instead, train yourself to be godly. “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” –  1 Timothy 4:7b-8.

The American philosopher, writer, and historian Will Durant once said, “You are what you repeatedly do.” Our habits are what shape our lives. There are habits we want to implement, and there are habits we want to stop.

The problem many of us face is that we are far too ambitious in trying to change our habits. We don’t just want to exercise daily. We want to work the stair master for an hour. We don’t want to just read a few verses each day we want to read an entire book. The reality is that the more difficult the change in habits the less likely we will succeed.

So, if you want to change your life, you need to change your habits. And to change your habits, you have to start small and make it easy, at least at first. When we think about needing to fit devotions or prayer time into our lives, often it seems overwhelming. We’re just too busy, and we don’t have time. That’s because we make the goal too big. We think to make it really meaningful, we have to devote an hour to concentrated Bible study every day, or we have to pray for every single person we know. Sometimes even 10 minutes seems like too much. And so we don’t even try. We quit before we start.

But what if we apply that baby step mentality to our spiritual growth? Maybe you can’t find an hour, or even 10 minutes at a time. But could you find time to open your Bible (or your Bible app) and read one verse? Take the habit that you want to incorporate into your life and make it as small as you possibly can. If you want to read your Bible, start by reading five minutes each day.

If you want to wake up earlier, don’t start setting your alarm clock for two hours earlier than you normally get up. Start with 15 minutes earlier. The key to building a successful habit is being able to be consistent with it for 2-3 months. So you want to choose something that you know you can maintain. If your goal is to pray for 30 minutes each day, start small and just pray for five daily. When that becomes a habit add 5 more minutes.  Building a habit is more about being slow and steady than over-ambitious and burning out.

That is good news for each one of us because our life is not typically an ongoing series of large events spiritually. Very few people are going to have an impact on tens of thousands of people. Most of us tend to sweat the small stuff. But sometimes in our walk with the Lord, we neglect what we might perceive as “the little things” due to our hectic schedules. We forget that daily time with God in His Word, prayer, and serving others all help us learn to be faithful. Luke 16:10 tells us, “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.” In other words, how we handle small stuff makes a huge difference in how we’ll handle the big stuff.

If little things can make a big difference to Jesus, then little things can make a big difference for us.

Discussion Questions: 

1. Think about your past attempts to change. Have you made resolutions or sweeping promises to change? How well did it work?
2. How can little things make a difference in our walk with God?