The full text of this tract is shown below in the NASB version. (Do you want to print this tract in a different version than the one listed? Contact us and let us know what you're looking for—we may be able to create the alternate version for you at no charge.)

How do you Break a Bad Habit?

How do you stop doing something you know is hurting you or others, and is causing health / relationship issues? You know it’s wrong but you do it anyway. You’ve tried so many ways to stop it, but none have succeeded. Nevertheless, it feels good at first and gives you relief from the pain or emptiness you feel inside from your failures or even successes. In the end, however, it doesn’t solve the problem. Even worse, besides the wasted time, it’s causing more problems to your mental and physical health from this addiction. You hope you can overcome this by sheer will, but unfortunately it ends up shearing your peace and joy from your life.

Finally, you get to the point where you feel that breaking the habit isn’t even worth it. You would rather give in to the addiction and experience some relief from the pain or emptiness, rather than put up with the effort and repeated failures of resisting the bad habit. Perhaps you think that someday you’ll stop the bad habit. Life teaches us, however, that tomorrows become yesterdays very quickly—and if you have no time for your health today, it probably means you will have no health for your time tomorrow.

So, what can you do?

The first step is to find a good reason to stop. The best one is to establish an authority in your life that you trust and to whom you will be held accountable. Who or what in your life has that final authority and your best interest in mind? Others? Yourself? Or something more transcendent than you who will determine your future well-being? Living for others or yourself will never achieve the peace and joy to whom you are looking. Why? Very simply, you weren’t created for or by you and therefore don’t know what’s best for you. You were created by Someone and for something much more significant and perfect. Only in finding your Creator will you ever discover your purpose and your peace. Only then will you be able to live morally responsible because you have an objective standard to follow, one that’s not determined by imperfect you or me.

How do I know that A STANDARD even exists? What is truth?

How do we find truth? In a world with so many options, how does one know which option is right? The answer: First, truth has to be discovered, not invented. If it is invented, then it is only as perfect as its imperfect inventor, especially when it comes to advice on human behavioral and eternal issues. Who is this “Inventor/Creator”? Where do we find them?

The Bible has the only real answer. It says that God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1). It says that we are made in His image (Spiritually, Morally, Artistically, Relationally, Thoughtfully – SMART). We will NEVER be that kind of human we were created to be unless we understand the God who has always existed—the Lord (I AM), infinite yet personal. “Everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, even whom I have made” (Isaiah 43:7). It takes humility to understand this. Humility starts with an awesome awareness of God. In other words, intellectual maturity is the ability to continue to learn after you think you know it all.

What does it mean to live for God’s glory?

• God is best glorified when we:
• know and understand Him and the Lord Jesus Christ.
• love Him and others.
• obey what He has told us to do.
• honor Him with our praise and thanks for His goodness, grace and mercy.
• always put Him (and nothing else) first in our lives.
• represent Him well by being what we are meant to be, and doing what we are meant to do.
• find our satisfaction in Him. (see John 17)

Now that we have a basis for truth, we can continue with the strategy and power that goes with it to overcome any addiction. You see, when you do what the Bible says to do, you will become the kind of person the Bible says you will become. Why? Because it’s the truth—God’s truth—that sets us free! (See John 8:32.)

Breaking a bad habit is not as simple as the ABC’s, but can be remembered that way:

Admit you have a problem: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). There is healing in the revealing. Next, find someone to share this with…

Be accountable. Find someone to confess your habit to and ask him/her to help you break it. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).

Create a plan that will replace the bad habit with a good one. For example, saying a scripture or singing a short praise song every time you feel like swearing as a result of getting angry or going to bed earlier at night so you don’t fall asleep in class the next day at school. Proverbs 16:9 says: “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 15:22 says: “Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.” Jeremiah 29:11 says: “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” Proverbs 21:5 says: “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.”

Habits are easy to start but hard to break, so be careful what new repeated actions you start. Habits turn into addictions over time where the behavior or practice controls you. “Surely you know that you become the slaves of whatever you give yourselves to. Anything or anyone you follow will be your master. You can follow sin, or you can obey God. Following sin brings spiritual death, but obeying God makes you right with him” (Romans 6:16, ERV).

“The most important thought that ever occupied my mind is that of my individual responsibility to God” (Daniel Webster). Pray to God that you want to cooperate with the future he has for you. There is hope to help you cope; this hope is not in you, but in the One who created you (Psalm 42:11).

You are His workmanship created for good works, not ones that waste time. You are too valuable and life is too short for you to waste it. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). We are not saved by works, but for good works—the chief ones: loving God and others. “I can do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). God will be with you—to know Him is to TRUST him—Total/Tenacious Reliance Upon Scriptural Truth.

Seven Strategies for Overcoming an Addiction:

1. What bad habit do you have at this time? Be honest. Be specific. Tell yourself the truth.
2. Trust God and find an accountability partner that can encourage, challenge, and pray for you.
3. A long journey begins with a single step. What steps do you need to take to replace the bad habit with a good habit? For example, “today I will exercise, read, or learn an instrument for 30 minutes instead of watching TV or playing video games.” “Today, I will begin the day with my face in The Book (Bible) not in Facebook.” Renew your mind with the good not bad news. Your mind is like a garden, whatever you put in it will grow. Sow seeds of positive not negative reinforcement (Philippians 4:8).
4. Write down your objectives and steps to achieve your goals. Be specific. Set godly goals. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
5. Then, share these objectives and steps with your accountability partner(s)—friends and/or family. Protect yourself from evil influences on all your media devices.
6. Weekly pray together about your challenges and for God’s grace and persistence to overcome.
7. Memorize scriptures that can encourage you throughout your day—ones that help you replace the lies of the evil one with the truth from our heavenly Father.

Remember, there was a reason you started the habit in the first place. What basic need were you trying to satisfy? Was it your…

Identity—Who am I?

Belonging—Who wants me? Or,

Purpose—What is my calling?

Nothing or no one is big or eternal enough to satisfy these needs. Only God is. Choose to meet your need for security, significance, and love in God alone as His child (see John 1:12). We were created with these legitimate needs, but not to satisfy them in illegitimate ways that God calls sin.

In short, you can overcome any addiction (1 Corinthians 10:13) if you’re willing to get help from the One who understands you more than anyone else does—a loving Father who sent Jesus to die for you. Someone who was willing to die for you rather than live without you. “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). It’s appointed once for us to die and then comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). If you wait, it will be too late.

Love in Christ,
Tom Tofilon
Pastor/Author of “Praying to God our Father”

Back to top of page