We cannot stop a bad habit. We can only replace it with a good one. I become more and more convinced of that reality. We are creatures of habit, and so much of life is making sure we\u2019re building healthy ones. To be completely honest with you (which I intend to be for the entirety of this work), I really wrestled with what to title this book. There were no less than fifty different titles we tried out along the way. The last thing I wanted was for it to sound like another self-help book. Your local bookstore (and even the Christian section of that bookstore) is already full of those. You see, I am not trying to help people be smarter sinners.<\/p>\n
It is one of my core beliefs that everyone lives forever somewhere\u2014either in heaven or hell. My goal is to help other Christians, other believers in Jesus, live the righteous lives Jesus desires for us. The only way that will happen is by living fully dependent on the Holy Spirit and by doing the things Jesus calls us to do in this life as we pursue holiness. In fact, 1 Peter 1:15 instructs us to be holy in all that we do. But how do we do that? I don\u2019t know about you, but that seems like an impossibly high bar to me.<\/p>\n
If you have ever parented a toddler (or spent any time around one, for that matter), it does not take long to figure out that toddlers lack something called \u201cimpulse control.\u201d Their brains aren\u2019t fully developed enough to process all of the pros and cons of the decisions they make, so instead they just do whatever feels good or fun in the moment.<\/p>\n
The truth is, while impulse control eventually kicks in, we never quite grow out of that phase of doing the things we know we shouldn\u2019t. There are many things I\u2019ve done that I didn\u2019t really want to do, but I still did them. Not in a resilient, \u201cdo hard things\u201d kind of way but in a rebellious, \u201cI know this isn\u2019t good for me, but I\u2019m going to do it anyway\u201d kind of way. And, like Weston, I\u2019m not sure why.<\/p>\n
In his letter to the church at Rome (his theological masterpiece), the apostle Paul sums up this internal conflict we all feel at times as believers in Jesus:<\/p>\n
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do\u2014this I keep on doing.”<\/em> (Rom. 7:15\u201319)<\/p>\n We are the same way! We want to pursue what is pure, true, righteous, and holy, but for some reason . . . we don\u2019t. We do things that pull us away from Jesus. We run toward momentary pleasure or temporal satisfaction. We don\u2019t quite know why we do the things we don\u2019t want to do.<\/p>\n There are countless times I have looked at something with a lustful intent, even though everything in me knows I shouldn\u2019t. I have responded in anger to people instead of showing them the same grace I have been shown. I have felt entitled to purchases I want because I think they will fill some void I feel, even though it never quite scratches the itch. Why do I do this? Why do I do what I don\u2019t want to do? And what should I do instead?<\/p>\n\n\t\t