I Need Discipline!

I have a habit that I have developed over the past years of committing myself to grocery shop each Wednesday. I don’t know how and when exactly it began, but it has become almost a ruling; I must be at the grocery store each Wednesday morning at 8 a. m. Why 8 a. m.? I have no idea. But if I find myself running late, I scurry to ready myself and get out the door. One would think I was heading off to my place of employment. I am that diligent.

I have other habits as well.
Some good.
Some bad.

I don’t often pay much attention to most of my habits. They are just there and they don’t bother me, and they certainly don’t appear to bother anyone else.

They are simply who I am.

“I am a creature of habit.” I have made that statement on many occasions to others when I find myself doing something automatically; especially when it is not necessary that I do it. Habits can be annoying; habits can be embarrassing.

I remember when I used to drive my daughter into the city one night a week to attend her group meeting. It seemed that each week she would need to remind me where to turn. I would automatically head off to the fitness club where I was a member. It was in the same general area. “I am a creature of habit” I would say. After all, I drove to that fitness centre about 3 times each week. But I would still feel embarrassed and sometimes I think my daughter was annoyed that I was, once again, preoccupied. Not thinking of what I was doing; or where I was destined to be at that time.

I find my Christian walk is like that. I find myself at times not thinking of what I am doing or where I am destined to be. I find myself embarrassed by my relaxed persona and my inattentiveness.

I am bewildered because no matter how often I read my Bible, or how often I pray, I never seem to develop a daily habit of prioritizing these areas. Oddly, my habits do not extend to my eternal existence.

I look to the Scriptures for guidance, and I read that Jesus made time with His father a daily precedence.

Jesus prayed daily; it was an absolute priority for Him to spend time with his Father. There are a variety of Scripture references in the Bible to support this.

I am often, too often, convicted of my lacking in this area. Perhaps what I need to do is to make my daily time with God a discipline, and not simply rely on the development of a habit. A habit that, obviously, is never going to come to fruition.