Dharius Daniels - This Strategy from the Bible BROKE My Bad Habits

Hey, I once heard a quote suggesting that you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your habits. Have you ever had a habit that you wanted to break, needed to break, but couldn’t? Someone might have told you—or maybe you read or heard someone suggest—that you didn’t break the habit, or couldn’t break the habit, because you didn’t want to break the habit badly enough. I’m telling you, sometimes the issue isn’t whether or not you have enough strength to break a bad habit; sometimes the issue is whether or not you have the right strategy to break that bad habit. In this video, I’m going to give you a strategy you probably haven’t heard that will help you break bad habits and experience breakthroughs in your personal life. Let’s go!

James Clear, the author of «Atomic Habits», wrote this in the book: he says that building habits is actually one of the ways you become yourself; that there is a version of you that exists that you haven’t stepped into yet. The biblical framework and paradigm for this can be seen with biblical characters like Abram, who becomes Abraham; Sarai, who becomes Sarah; and Jacob, who becomes Israel. The changing of their names was indicative of an evolution in their character. The name Jacob means trickster, supplanter, conniver, or scammer—that’s what Jacob meant. Israel means prince with God. So, the changing of a name reflects the evolution of their character. They became a different version of themselves. I don’t know about you, but I want to be the me I know God created me to be. One of the ways that happens is by allowing God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, to sanctify and shift my habits.

I think it’s important for us to understand that even when we talk about sinful patterns of behavior, all they are are sinfully ingrained habits. This is what I’ve learned about any habit. Whether the habit is immoral, something sinful, or whether the habit is unproductive or unhealthy—immoral, that’s sin; unhelpful, that’s weight. So, whether it’s immoral or simply unhelpful or unhealthy, here’s what I’ve learned: if you don’t break bad habits, bad habits will eventually break you. But if you’re like me, you’ve identified habits from time to time that you need to break. You have tried to break those habits. If you’re like me, you’ve prayed about those habits, prayed over those habits, made promises to yourself about those habits, and then still found yourself sliding back into some of those same habits—whether it’s procrastination, overcommitment, or people-pleasing, whatever it may be. Maybe you found yourself free for a season and then you fell right back into the same cycle of breaking the habit.

You may have possibly heard some speaker, some teacher, or some influencer tell you that you don’t want it bad enough and that you need to want it more than you want it. Here’s what I’ve learned in over two decades of serving people and dealing with spiritual and personal transformation: sometimes the issue with the lack of transformation isn’t because people don’t have the right strength; it’s because people don’t have the right strategy. Strength isn’t always the answer, and here’s why. John Marcer discusses this in his book on discipleship, called «Practicing the Way», and here’s what he says: the reason many people don’t change isn’t because they don’t want to change; they don’t know the right way to change. He identifies some of the wrong ways to change as a way to help people discover the right way. Here’s one of the wrong ways he mentioned: willpower. When I tell you that I read this, it gave me a breakthrough. He said willpower doesn’t work.

Of course, I knew willpower is stronger than willpower, as my coaching mentor, my greatest influence in coaching, taught me. I get that. But John Marcer said something so strong; here’s what he said: the reason willpower doesn’t work is that it’s finite. I’m like, «Wait a minute!» He said it’s limited; you don’t have an unlimited supply of it. I’m like, «Time out, flag on the play.» I need to let that marinate; you don’t have an unlimited supply of it. You may think you do; you can assume you do. But the truth of the matter is, you do not have an unlimited supply of willpower. So at some point, your willpower and your ability to resist some of these instinctive habits wear down over time. Therefore, I need more than strength; I need a strategy. What I want to give you today is a strategy that you may not have considered.

What I want to give you today is something that doesn’t necessarily help you work harder at breaking a habit but helps you work smarter at breaking a habit. Here’s what I learned recently: the reason many habits can’t be broken is simply that habits are symptoms, not the sickness. When you’re treating the habit or dealing with the habit, you’re not dealing with the root of the problem; you’re actually dealing with the fruit of the problem. The fruit keeps coming back because you’re not addressing the root. The symptoms keep reappearing because you haven’t identified the sickness. So, for many of us, bad habits can’t be broken because the issue isn’t the habit. The habit is revealing the issue, and sometimes the issue is an idol. You might say, «Wait a minute, PD; calm down, back up. Flag on the play! What do you mean, an idol?»