Download printable habit tracking worksheet
“Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.” – Proverbs 20:11
Have you ever noticed that we frequently describe people’s character by their habits?
- A liar is someone who lies habitually.
- A kind person is not someone who is kind, not just once in a while, but repeatedly and consistently.
- A lazy person isn’t just someone who sleeps in once in a while, but one whose pattern of life is marked by consistent idleness.
The truth is your habits aren’t merely behaviors you repeat, as if they were somehow external to you. Your habits reveal who you are on the inside. As our Lord said, “a tree is known by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33).
Habits are character.
So if we really want to change our habits, we must understand that we are not just modifying behavior, but undertaking nothing less than the altering of our very character. When we seek to change a habit, we aren’t just trying to do things differently, but to become someone different.
No wonder changing our habits is so hard!
An Unbreakable Connection
To break bad habits, we need to first appreciate the unbreakable connection between behavior and belief. The work of habit change, whether removing an old habit or adding a new one, is the process of adapting our behavior to correct beliefs.
This means habit change involves two parts:
- Correcting beliefs
- Correcting behavior
In my experience, however, believers tend to neglect one of these two essential elements.
Some focus on correcting beliefs, trusting that behavior change will naturally follow. This is a good instinct, but the omission of the “how” of habit change often leaves people in a state of frustration, knowing they should be acting differently but unsure of how to connect their beliefs to their behavior in practice.
Others emphasize behavior change, but neglect the need for belief change. They might hand you a copy of Atomic Habits and say, “Just follow the four laws of behavior change.” But the worst-case scenario is when this actually works! The behavior changes, but the person remains unchanged. The wrong beliefs just get buried under a more acceptable set of externals. Worse yet, you get the glory for the discipline that led to your behavior change instead of God alone who doesn’t merely modify behavior but transforms us from the inside out.
For truly God-honoring habit change, we must correct both belief and behavior.
Correcting Your Beliefs
All habits are the result of beliefs.
Bad habits are the result of believing lies. Good habits are the result of living in accordance with the truth.
To help us understand this, let’s look at Romans 12:2:
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.
The apostle’s point is that a transformed mind (beliefs aligned with God’s truth) should result in a pattern of living which pleases God (e.g. bad habits forsaken, good habits embraced).
Practically, then, when we observe a bad habit in ourselves, something which we know is displeasing to God, we should begin by prayerfully tracing that behavior to its ideological source. This work can be aided by the counsel of a mature believer, pastor, or biblical counselor.
The lies behind the bad habits are likely deep and multi-dimensional, but be sure of this: behind every bad habit there is a lie being believed. When we discover erroneous beliefs, we must then replace them with the truth of God’s Word (see Ephesians 4:22–24 and Colossians 3:9-10). This is the first step toward God-honoring behavior change.
Some examples of bad habits that may be the fruit of false beliefs.
| Bad Habit | False Belief | Biblical Correction | Resultant Habit Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Procrastination | “My worth is based on my performance, so if I can’t do it perfectly, it’s not worth starting.” | Scripture teaches that my worth is in God’s love for me and in Christ’s finished work (Ephesians 2:8–10). My work is an act of service, not self-validation. | The believer begins tackling tasks promptly, motivated by stewardship rather than fear of failure. |
| 2. Overeating or other types of overindulgence | “Comfort comes from food (or entertainment, or shopping, etc.).” | God is “the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4). | Instead of running to food or media for relief, the believer turns to prayer, meditation on God’s gifts, and gratitude. |
| 3. Neglect of prayer or Scripture | “I can handle life on my own” (though perhaps manifesting in excuses like “I don’t have time”). | Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). | Seeing dependence as the source of their strength, the believer begins building daily communion with God as essential, not optional. |
But don’t stop here.
That final step of resultant habit change is not automatic. The process of habit change begins in the mind and heart, but it must work its way out in the hands. And this will require discipline.
Correcting Your Behavior
Here’s where even mature believers give up too early in the process. They become convicted of a lie they are believing that is leading to an ungodly or unwanted behavior pattern. They then (rightly) take the truth of Scripture and use it to flush the lie out and replace it with truth. But then they go no further. And they soon discover that even though they have corrected the belief, the behavior seems to continue unchanged.
This is incredibly demoralizing. And if left unaddressed, it can undermine one’s belief in the efficacy of God’s Word to transform us. But what has actually happened is that the Christian has simply neglected the second element of biblical habit change. They have corrected their beliefs, but they have not pressed on to deliberately correct their behavior according to those beliefs.
When the Apostle tells the believers in Rome to “consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:11), he is telling them to behave as if they really believe that spiritual truth. When I reckon myself dead to sin, I do not continue walking in the same habits of letting “sin reign in [my] mortal body so that [I] obey it’s lusts” (6:12). Instead of lending my body to be used by Satan for His purposes, I let my members become “instruments of righteousness.” The reckoning is the belief, and the offering of my members to God is the behavior. Both steps are necessary.
The practice of effectuating habit change in our behavior is hard work. It involves the difficult, often long-term, effort of not only reminding ourselves of the truth, but also of conforming our behavior to fit our newly corrected beliefs. This requires discipline (see 1 Corinthians 9:27).
Here is where structured practices can be incredibly helpful:
- Memorize relevant Scripture. Choose passages that contain the antidote truth the lies behind your bad habits, or which commend the good habits you are seeking to establish.
- Track your habits. Set specific habit goals, and keep track of your progress over time. This is just a tool. You will not need to do this forever. But the marking of progress will help you see where you need help and give you a testimony of God’s faithfulness in helping you to change. Every check mark becomes a stone of remembrance to God’s grace.
- Seek accountability. Find other believers who are serious about growth, and help one another stay the course. This a highly practical way to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2) and encourage and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
Conclusion
Biblical habit change is not merely modifying our behavior, nor is it just assenting to what the Bible says. To be truly transformed, we must submit our wrong beliefs to the truth of God’s Word and apply ourselves in His power to live as though we really believe those things to be true.
