Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me — a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim 1:13 (NLT)
Bad habits can make us feel guilty and ashamed. Even though we may not like doing them, they can still draw us in again the next day, the next craving or the next temptation. The shame can then drive us to a coping mechanism, which is often another (or the same) bad habit. Biting nails, binging on food, smoking cigarettes are smaller examples. Self-harm, negative self-talk and mental and emotional self-sabotage are the extremes. The problem is these habits are not shaped by faith or love.
Paul says to Timothy in this verse to “hold onto the pattern… shaped by faith and love in Christ Jesus”. That means that we have to hang onto good habits (God habits) not just expect them to happen. When we let go of ‘holding on’, the river of sin-nature just carries us ‘down-stream’ bringing us down to a lower common denominator.
We all have many good habits and once they become a pattern in our lives it requires less energy to maintain them. The challenge is breaking the old, bad habits and establishing the new, good ones. If our new habits and patterns are formed by faith and love in Jesus, then surely we can draw on His strength to hold onto them! After all “greater is He that is in you…” We believe in you today – go for it!
