How Do We Change?

How do you break a bad habit?

The way Jesus did it is very interesting. But we often don't notice it.

Look at Luke 6:12-16 with me:

*During those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God. When daylight came, he summoned his disciples, and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles...*

When Jesus called the disciples, they didn't know how to follow him. (Read the gospels—they're often clueless).

So what was his plan?

Put these knuckleheads together: Friendships, community, relationships, conversations, teaching, and trying to imitate their leader.

All the gospels show Jesus building a community that participates in his mission.

By contrast, those who refused Jesus' invitation to "come, follow me" weren't transformed. They went back to their very important lives. And missed out on being with the Incarnate God.

The same principle is evident in Psalm 1. One community forms around the wicked and their ways. The other community seeks righteousness in relationship to God and God's word.

Psalm 1 teaches us that to be "blessed" or "happy" is to be united with God and his people as we walk in God's ways.

And according to James Clear, an expert on habit formation, the scientific evidence supports the idea that friendship and community enable us to adopt and sustain new behaviors.

Someone said, "You're the average of your five best friends." There's something to that.

So, what kind of person do you want to become? What habits do you need to practice to get there? And what community will help you achieve those goals?

How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the LORD's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.