May 12th
Make a habit of having no habits
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful. 2 Peter 1:8 (R.V.).
When we begin to form a habit we are conscious of it. There are times when we are aware of becoming virtuous and patient and godly, but it is only a stage; if we stop there, we shall get the strut of the spiritual prig. The right thing to do with habits is to lose them in the life of the Lord until every habit is practised that there is no conscious practice at all. Our spiritual life continually resolves into introspection because there are some qualities we have not added as yet. Ultimately the relationship is to be an entirely straightforward one.
Your god may be your little Christian habit, the habit of prayer at stated times, or the habit of Bible reading. Watch how your Father will upset those times if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the pattern symbolizes—‘I can’t do that just now, I am praying; it is my hour with God.’ No, it is your hour with your habit. There is a quality that is lacking in you. Recognize the defect, and then look for the opportunity of exercising yourself along the line of the quality to be added.
Love means that there is no habit visible, you have come to the place where the way is lost, and by practice, you do the thing unconsciously. If you are consciously holy, there are certain things you imagine I cannot do, certain relationships in which you are far from simple; that means there is something to be added. The only supernatural life is the life the Lord Jesus lived, and He was at home with God anywhere. Is there anywhere where you are not at home with God? Let God press through in that particular circumstance until you gain Him, and life becomes the simple life of a child.
Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986. Print.
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