We are all “creatures of habit.” Sometimes the habits we develop are good; at other times we acquire bad habits which we need to break. God’s Word instructs us as to both. I have found eight excellent habits that Scripture encourages us to incorporate into our lives on a daily basis. If we would practice these, we would most surely benefit spiritually, and even more importantly, our blessed Lord Jesus would be glorified.
1. “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things we so” (Acts 17:11). Our first daily habit should be to search the Scriptures. Whether we are a babe in Christ, or one who has been on the road to heaven for many years, the Word of God is to be, as another has said, “food for our soul, and light for our path.” It is that by which we grow spiritually (see 1 Pet. 2:2). Notice it does not say “read the Scriptures daily, but “search the Scriptures daily.” This implies that we are to be diligent in our study of Scripture, and desirous of learning the Word of God so we can in turn obey the truth that we learn. I take it this was true of those in Berea, for “they received the Word with all readiness of mind.” They did not even take what the great apostle Paul taught them as gospel truth; they searched the Scriptures to see if what he had preached to them lined up with the Word of God. What diligence and zeal that we would do well to emulate!
The question now is, “When is the best time to search the Scriptures?” To answer that I would turn our attention to Isaiah 50:4:“The LORD God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; He wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as the learned.” This verse is speaking prophetically of our Lord Jesus Christ and it is humbling to see Him who was “God manifest in the flesh” taking the place of a learner (see also Luke 2:40-52 for another example of our blessed Lord, in His perfect humanity, taking the place of a learner). Here we are being taught that every morning He would awake and take His place as learner before the Father, and God would instruct Him by the Word. Before the Lord met the day, with all its duties and trials, He would begin the day in the Scriptures, which in turn would prepare Him to meet the day and to do God’s will. In this the Lord has given us an example to follow, for if we would meet the pressures of the day in God’s strength, we too must start our day searching the Scriptures.
2. “Blessed is the man who hears Me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors” (Prov. 8:34). Another daily habit we should cultivate is to look for Christ in the Scriptures. Proverbs 8 speaks of Christ as the “wisdom of God.” The Lord Jesus is appealing to us in this chapter to be on the lookout for wisdom (that is, Christ Himself!) as we hear the Word of God. It is all too easy to take up the Scriptures and study them as we would any other book. But God’s desire is for our hearts to be taken up with His beloved Son, to have our affections set upon Him (see Col. 3:1,2). Our main objective, as we search the Scriptures, is to see Christ in those very Scriptures.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day failed to do this. They thought they were well-acquainted with God’s Word and yet when their Messiah appeared in their midst, according to all the Old Testament prophecies that outlined His birth and life’s ministry—He was born in Bethlehem as Micah predicted, He was born of a virgin as Isaiah had foretold, He was born of the tribe of Judah as Jacob had prophesied, and He preached the gospel of the kingdom and performed miracles to confirm the Word as Isaiah had written many years before—they not only rejected Him, but conspired to kill him. In a timely rebuke the Lord told them, “Search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they that testify of Me” (John 5:38).
Even those who believed in and loved the Lord Jesus failed to recognize Christ in some of their Old Testament Scriptures. You may recall that scene in Luke 24 where two of His own were making their way home from Jerusalem and they were sad because the One in whom they had trusted to redeem Israel had been crucified (Luke 24:13-21). Jesus had to gently rebuke them as well with these words, “O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (24:25-27). They had believed in Jesus as their Messiah, but they had failed to see Christ in those passages that spoke of His suffering and death! How gracious of the Savior to have taken them aside to reveal to them all the Scriptures that spoke of the necessity of His sufferings and death. What a Bible study that must have been! Perhaps He took them first of all to the promise of the woman’s seed in Genesis 3 and said, “I am the woman’s seed!” And then He may have read a few verses further where we see the coats of skins God clothed Adam and Eve with, which are a blessed picture of Christ being offered up in death in order to provide sinners with the garments of salvation. In the very next chapter we see Abel, who by faith offered up a lamb in sacrifice to God, which provides another glimpse of Christ as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” On and on the Lord went, giving them one blessed view after another of Himself. Is it any wonder that later they declared, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures” (24:32). And so it will be with us dear fellow-believer, if we have our eyes opened to see Christ in the Scriptures.
3. “Be merciful unto me, O Lord:for I cry unto Thee daily” (Psa. 86:3). “My eye mourns by reason of affliction; LORD, I have called daily upon Thee, I have stretched out my hands unto Thee” (Psa. 88:9). Equally important in our daily living is the need to pray. The Lord desires fellowship with us, which means He wants to hear from us just as much as He wants us to hear from Him. He desires us to be in a constant state of dependency, which is what prayer really is. Notice the language David employed to speak of his daily prayer to God:“I cry unto Thee.” He didn’t simply “say his prayers”; he cried out to the Lord with a felt need, and with faith depending on God to respond to the afflictions he was facing. Do we not face the same needs today, brethren? We too are afflicted at times and thus we need to cry out daily to our God who can meet our needs. The apostle wrote to the Hebrews, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
When is the best time to pray? I think all would agree with the apostle Paul when he exhorts us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), in other words, at all times. But just as we learned that we should begin our day searching the Scriptures, we learn also that the morning is the best time to pray:“My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up” (Psa. 5:3). Before the enemy assails us and our responsibilities begin, we need to cry out to the Lord in dependence and faith.
4. “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits” (Psa. 68:19). We have just read of the afflictions David suffered, but David was equally aware of the blessings God had bestowed upon him. This surely implies that David was thankful for God’s blessings. I have been studying many of Paul’s Epistles over the last year or so and it has been impressed upon my heart how often Paul lifted up His voice to God for the blessings he received. One such occurrence is Ephesians 1:3:“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Paul was keenly aware of how God had “daily loaded him with benefits,” and it is absolutely vital for us to count our blessings daily and to give thanks to God for them.
5. “And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba:prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised” (Psa. 72:15). We have just learned how important it is to thank God for our daily blessings; here we learn it is equally important to praise the Lord Jesus daily. This Psalm speaks primarily of Solomon who was to succeed David on the throne and to be honored by the nations round about him. But as we look closely at this Psalm we see that a “greater than Solomon” is before us. Verse 8 speaks of a king who will have universal dominion, something that was never true of Solomon. But in a coming day, when the Lord Jesus comes as “King of kings, and Lord of lords” to assume His throne and reign supremely over the entire world, He will then receive the praise that He deserves. If that is true of a coming day, should it not be true in this day of grace in which we find ourselves? Surely it should! He deserves all the praise our hearts can muster for His redeeming grace manifested at Calvary, and for the love and grace showered upon us daily. “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord’s Name is to be praised” (Psa. 113:3).
Let us muse for a moment on how powerful praise can be. Consider that scene in Acts 16:16-24 where the apostle Paul and Silas were imprisoned for faithfully preaching the gospel. There they were in a deep, dark, and dank cell, with bleeding backs and nothing to encourage them. Yet we read, “At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God; and the prisoners heard them” (16:25). What a foreign sound that must have been to all who heard these hymns of praise. I am sure the men were accustomed to hearing complaints, angry threats, and profanity from their fellow inmates, so what a testimony to the grace of God to hear notes of praise ascending to God in view of the circumstances they were in. We know that God used this testimony to save the poor jailor who later fell at the feet of Paul and Silas with those memorable words, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved” (16:31). Those words of praise uttered by Paul and Silas resulted in the conversion of this precious soul, which in turn led to the formation of the assembly at Philippi. Such is the power of praise dear brothers and sisters! May it be found in our lives daily, that we too may prove its power as we testify of God and His saving grace!
6. “Exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13). The previous Scriptures in this article were not picked at random, for there is a definite order here. If we find ourselves in fellowship with God (by daily searching the Scriptures, looking for Christ in the Scriptures, praying, being thankful for our blessings, and praising our Lord and Saviour), we shall be prepared to reach out to other believers to “encourage one another daily.” Our fellowship with the Father and the Son fills our hearts to overflowing and the natural result is we want to be a channel of blessing to others. We will never lack for opportunity, for there will always be the need to encourage others. I had thought of preparing a list of ways in which we can encourage one another, but time and space forbid doing so. Suffice it to say that one of the greatest ways we can encourage one another is to point them to the preciousness of Christ that we have seen from the Word. This can be done by a phone call to a brother or sister, or a letter or e-mail, or even better by a personal visit. But perhaps the most opportune time to minister encouragement to our brethren is when we are assembled together for that very purpose; I am speaking of assembly meetings! Hebrews 10:25 states, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting [encouraging] one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.” Oh, how needful it is to come together, brethren, and in doing so to encourage one another. Sometimes just the presence of other saints serves to encourage us. We are, no doubt, living in the last days (as this verse intimates), where the world that hates Christ is becoming increasingly wicked and ungodly. This cold, sinful world can leave its influence on us if we are not diligent in seeking out other believers to encourage them and to be encouraged by them.
7. “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their bread with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:46,47). I had verse 47 in mind, but I included verse 46 because it illustrates the need that we just saw of coming together for fellowship. As you will notice, there is no direct command in verse 47 instructing us to do something on a daily basis. Rather, we learn what the Lord Himself is doing daily:He is “building His Church.” That is, He is saving souls by sinners believing the gospel and then making them members of His body, which is the Church (see Eph. 1:13; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:22,23). We learn elsewhere that the gospel has been entrusted to believers (see 1 Thess. 2:4) and it is our responsibility as well as our privilege to reach out to sinners with the good news so they can be saved and become part of the Church of God. So, indirectly we learn from verse 47 that we should be concerned daily with evangelizing souls. In short, one of our daily habits should be to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5). This may involve speaking directly to souls of their need of Christ, passing out tracts, enclosing tracts in letters and bills, preaching a gospel meeting at a conference, and many other ways. Surely there will be days when there is not a direct opportunity to witness to souls, but even then we can be praying for those who are dealing directly with souls. I have often thought that the desire we have to see souls saved is a “spiritual barometer”; if we have that desire we are spiritually healthy; if we lose that desire we have drifted spiritually and are in need of being stirred up.
8. “And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). Last, but not least, we should respond to this command of our Lord and take up our cross daily. What does that mean? What is involved in a man taking up his cross? We know that our blessed Lord Himself took up His cross, for we read in John 19:16,17:“Then delivered he Him there unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led Him away. And He “bearing His cross” went forth into a place … called in the Hebrew Golgotha.” What did people think when they saw a man bearing his cross on his way to be crucified? I believe when they saw such a man they instantly thought, “Well, that is the end of that man’s life.” And beloved, I believe that this is the meaning of our Lord’s words to us as well. In telling us to take up our cross He is, in essence, telling us “this is the end of your life.” It is the end of our life as sinners in this world! This is confirmed by the next verse, “For whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:24). To lose my life for His sake is to deny living for myself and the world; it is to live for Christ and for the world to come!
I believe the cross is also an object of shame and contempt. When a man was bearing his cross on his way to be crucified he was ridiculed and persecuted, for he was looked upon as a criminal and one worthy of death. So, in “taking up our cross” we are willing to suffer reproach for Christ, to be hated by the world that hated Christ, and even to suffer martyrdom if called upon to do so. All this, and perhaps more, is involved in those weighty words, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
In closing, may the Lord impress these thoughts deeply upon our minds and hearts. As I stated at the beginning, if we were to incorporate these eight things into our daily lives we would be spiritually blessed (beyond measure!) and the Lord Jesus (who is so deserving of honor and praise) would be glorified. If we have already made them part of our daily lives, let us, by the grace of God, continue in them. If we have not, may the Spirit be pleased to use these few lines to produce in us the desire to make them our daily habits.