Joel Osteen Podcast - Developing Good Habits | Joel Osteen

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

Your habits determine your future. If you want to transform your life, start by transforming your everyday routine.  Your best days are still ahead, and together we can make a difference in this world with the message of God's hope and love. To give visit JoelOsteen.com/GiveHope Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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You and your dog are close, like watch each other go to the bathroom close, but you could be even closer. With Barkbox, every month, Barkbox brings dogs and their humans together with original toys and delicious treat. Sign up now at Barkbox.com slash iHeart. Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoyed today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend? We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. And God bless you.

There's always a joy to come into your homes each week, and we welcome you. We know God has good things in store for you, and we believe you're going to learn today, be encouraged and be uplifted. God rewards people that seek after him. If you're ever in our area, we give you a personal invitation to come out. I promise you, we'll make you feel right at home. But thanks for tuning in today. I like to get started each week with something kind of funny.

So listen to this one. A little girl was sitting on her grandfather's lap, and she noticed how rich, his face was. As she contemplated the difference between hers and his, she asked granddaddy, did God make you? He said, yes, honey, he made me a long time ago. She then asked, well, did God make me? He said, yes, he made you just a little while ago. She thought about it some more and said, Granddaddy, God's getting better, isn't he? Right, hold your Bibles up. Let's say it like we mean it. Ready? This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the word of God. I boldly confess, my mind is alert, my heart is receptive,

I will never be the same. In Jesus name. God bless you. You sound great as usual. We've been talking about breaking free from the negative things of the past, and I want to focus today on developing good habits. A habit is something that we do without even thinking about it. It's almost involuntary. We've done it so much, it comes natural to us. For instance, when you get up in the morning, you don't even have to think about it. You go in there and brush your teeth. Or at least I hope you do.

But many of the habits that we've developed were from the culture that we were raised in. If you grew up in a home where people were unorganized and sloppy and always late, there's a good chance you can form some of those same habits. Or if you were raised by people that were harsh and rude,

you can easily pick up some of that same behavior, and sometimes you don't even realize that you're doing it. It's all you've ever known. But we have to understand that our habits are going to determine our future. One study says 90% of our normal behavior is based on our habits. That means from the time we get up in the morning to the time we go to bed at night, 90% of what we do, we don't even really think about it. We're just on autopilot. So if you're going to change your life, you need to start by changing your everyday habits. You can't just keep doing the same things and expect to get different results. And I want to challenge you today to examine

your life and take inventory of your habits. Do you have a habit of being negative? Are you always late to work. Do you worry all the time? Do you overeat? Do you have addictions? Well, the good news is you can change. You can develop better habits. Most of the studies tell us that you can break a habit in as little as 21 days. Think about that. If you will discipline yourself for a month or so and be willing to suffer through the pain of change, then you can form a new habit and you'll rise up higher in that area. The Apostle Paul says here, all things are permissible to me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but I will not be mastered by anything. Notice Paul is saying, in effect, I'm going to get rid of everything that's not profitable and not productive in my life.

He said, I'm not going to stay under the control of any bad habit. We need to do the same thing. It's time we get rid of every non-productive thing in our lives. It may not be a sin. It's just something that we're doing that's not profitable. Maybe wasting time, overeating, spending too much money, being rude, using bad language. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be mastered by anything. I don't want to stay under the control of any habit that's going to keep me in mediocrity.

And it may not be a big thing. It can just be a little thing, but if we don't do something about it, we'll go year after year, wasting time, wasting energy, being unproductive and unprofitable. And that's not God's best. I know when Victoria and I first got married, we would misplace our car keys all the time. I'd come home and put them on the table or maybe take them up to the bedroom with me. Victoria, she might leave them in her purse or put them in the kitchen. and it seemed like every time we got ready to leave,

we'd have to spend a little while trying to find the car keys. And one day I realized how much time we were wasted. And I thought, I don't want to live my life like this. And so I got a hammer and two little nails. And we have a cabinet by our back door. And I hammered them right inside that cabinet so we could hang our keys on them. And the next few times I came home,

I did the same thing, took the keys up the bedroom or left them in my gym bag. And I had to really catch myself and make myself go put them. where the keys belong. I did it day after day after day. And eventually, when you get in the routine, when you retrain yourself, it's almost easier to do it than it is not to do it. It comes naturally. Now, we don't even think about it. When we go home, we go right to the cabinet and hang the keys up. That's the way a habit works, either in the positive or in the negative. The fact is,

successful people have successful habits. If you don't get to work on time, let's be Let me challenge you to change that habit. Get up 15 minutes earlier. Pay the price right now. Don't go 20 years down the road, always being late when it's so easy to change. Or if you have a habit of eating a bunch of junk food and drinking 12 sodas a day, why don't you form better habits? Because one day that's going to catch up to you.

That's the interesting thing about bad habits is many times we don't suffer the consequences until later on. If you mistreat your body by eating wrong and working all the time, you may get away with it for a while, but one day it'll catch up with you. If you're rude and harsh to the people in your life, they may put up with it now, but one day you could be a very lonely person. You're not going to have good relationships. Or if you've gotten into the habit of being negative, you're skeptical, you're sarcastic, you're critical, all you've really done is trained yourself to see the worst. Why don't you form a better habit? Why don't you start training yourself to see the best? Why don't you train yourself to give people the benefit of the doubt?

You can change your life by changing your habits. And a lot of times when we talk about habits, we think about only destructive things like drug addictions or some kind of abuse. But I'm asking you to look at your everyday habits. Do you know if you waste four or five minutes a day looking for things, your keys, your cell phone, your notebook. At the end of a year, you will have wasted almost a week of your life. The Bible tells us to make the most of our time. Living sloppy and unorganized is not being a good steward of the time that God's given us. Let's form better habits. I heard somebody say,

habits are just like gravity. They will always be pulling you toward them. Now, if you've got good habits, they'll make your life easier, more successful, more productive. But if you've got bad habits, they will always be dragging you down. You'll always gravitate toward them. The point is, if we can just develop right habits, we won't constantly be struggling. When you have good habits, your life will naturally produce good fruit. You'll naturally be happy. You'll experience God's abundant life. And what's interesting to me is it doesn't take that long to do. And sure, if you've been setting your ways for 20 or 30 years, you may not turn it around in 21 days, but I can tell you this, it will not take you 10 years to do it.

If you will get serious in any area of your life and you dig your hills in and make a decision to change and you stick with it, then you will begin to form that new habit. It'll get easier and easier every day, and then eventually you'll look up one day and you'll just do it automatically. You won't even have to think about it. That's the way habits work. But some of you today, you've gotten into a habit of not treating people good. You're rude, you're condescending, you're sharp with them. Listen, you can change.

Recognize that's a bad habit you've developed. And somebody's got to shake you out of that mediocrity or it'll end up destroying all of your relationships. You've got to make a decision that you're going to start being kind and courteous. You're going to start smiling, encouraging people, giving them some compliments. And it may be like pulling teeth to do this at the very beginning. It may go against everything that's within you, but if you'll just dig your heels in and do it anyway, you will begin to form that new habit. And as you stick with it week after week, not only will you see your relationships go to a whole new level,

but you'll have more joy, more happiness, more victory than you've ever had. Friends, don't stay where you are. Make a decision that you are going to develop better habits. The key to change is, number one, you have got to be consistent. You've got to do it day in and day out. You need to have a no exceptions policy. That means no matter how you feel, no matter how much you want to go back to your old way, no, you're not going to do it.

You're going to stick with it. And number two, you've got to be willing to press past the pain and the discomfort at the very beginning. after all, if you've trained your body in a certain way, year after year, if you've developed a certain type of behavior, then your body has gotten comfortable. It's easy for it. Does it naturally. It's not going to want to do anything different. But if you will discipline yourself and really stand your ground, just a few months down the road, you will have formed those new habits and your life will be so much more rewarding. And understand, once you form the new habits, once you get past that initial pain, it's not going to be that difficult anymore. I like to think of it like a rocket

being launched up into space. At liftoff, it takes all the thrust. The majority of the energy is expended at the very beginning. But once it gets up into space, it's home free. It's easy. And in the same way, when it comes to breaking habits, if you can just get past the first few weeks, it will get easier and easier. And one day, you will be home free as well. I think about all the people today that are trying to lose weight. The diet business is a multi-billion dollar industry. And although diets can be helpful at times, the long-term solution to really keeping your weight under control is not to run from diet to diet to diet. You know as well as I do, most of the time that's temporary. Most of the people, unfortunately, they end up regaining that weight. But the real

way to get your weight under control and keep it there is to change your habits. You've got to change your lifestyle. Start exercising. Start watching what you eat. When you eat it and how much you eat. If you will simply develop better habits, you won't have to run from diet to diet. And I realize it's not always easy,

especially at the first, you'll have to be extremely disciplined. But every time you resist that temptation, every time you make a better choice, it will get easier and easier. One day you'll look up and you will not be mastered by that thing. you'll be living a healthy and productive life. I remember I used to drink coffee every single morning. And I'd done this since I was a little boy growing up with my father. We always did it

together. And the truth is, over the years, I didn't really even enjoy it that much anymore. I was just doing it because that's all I'd ever known. Kind of got in that habit, now I was hooked on it. But one day, that coffee started sort of hurting my stomach and making me not feel well. I thought it was taking some of my energy. And so I decided that I was going to stop. But man, that first week, I had a headache like you could not even imagine. My body was so used to that caffeine in the morning, it didn't know what I was doing. And I was so tempted to just go back to my normal routine and think, you know what, somebody gave me a cup of coffee so this headache will go away. But I knew if I would stick with it, if I would be consistent,

just a few more days, it'd get easier and easier. And sure enough, I stuck with it. A few days went by, the headaches got a little bit less. A few weeks went by, I felt better and better. Today I don't miss it at all. I formed a new habit. The point is, it is always the most difficult at the very beginning. You'll always going to have plenty of opportunities to turn around and just stay in your same routine. I realize, you know, there's nothing wrong with coffee, but maybe, you know, there's some other areas in your life you need to do something about.

How about sweets, sugars, candy bars, donuts, ice cream. What I'm saying is junk food. Usher's, you better lock the doors now. Well, you say, Joel, I just couldn't live without that bowl of ice cream before I go to bed each night. No, you need to form better habits. You can live without it. The truth is, you will probably live longer without it. And the first step is to quit going into the kitchen late at night.

The Bible says to run from temptation. You've got to stay far away from that. there. And even when you go to the grocery store, a simple thing, but don't even go down the aisle that's got the ice cream on it. Don't make excuses. Well, I'm just going to pick up this one gallon Bluebell, cookies and cream in case we have some guests come over. Now, you know you will be the only guest that eats that ice cream. Stay far away from it. Run from that temptation. Don't make it harder on you than it has to be. But do you know today, many of our children are developing diabetes? It's happening in record numbers.

And the experts tell us it's because this generation of children is eating more sugar than any generation that has ever lived. They are hooked on cookies, candy bars, sodas. Listen, the body was not designed for that. A lot of times we're praying for God to heal us and for God to change things. But if we would just change our habits, if we would make changes in our lifestyles, then many of those things would take place. and you cannot break natural laws and mistreat your body and expect to live a very healthy life. When I was in my early 20s, I had a real nice sports car. And, man, I took such good care of that car.

I would only put the very best oil in that engine. It costs like twice as much as normal oil, but I didn't care. That car was my pride and joy. I would do anything that I could to make it last longer. In fact, I changed the oil every month, whether it needed it or not. And really now, looking back, I realized that I took better care of that car than I took care of myself. I would only put the best in that engine, but I'd put all kinds of junk in my own engine. I was living all fast food.

Hot dogs, hamburgers, pizzas, french fries. Man, I was always in a hurry. Playing ball four or five nights a week, and I'd just grab something and eat it in my car as fast as I could. But one day, I discovered that this body is a temple that God has given me. and how long it's going last and how well it's going to perform depends greatly on how I take care of it. Do I eat right? Do I get enough sleep at night?

Do I have a good balance between work and recreation and family time? All those things come into play when it comes to how healthy and how productive we're going to live. The older I get, and I'm not very old, but the older I get, the more I realize I don't want to just live, a long life, I want to live a long, healthy life. I want to feel good when I get up there in age and not just be dragging around because I never took care of myself. And I know that if we will do the natural, if we will do all we can do, God will help us to live long and healthy lives.

But you cannot mistreat your body and expect it to function in the way God created it to. And some of you drink a Coke right when you get up every single morning because it's all you've ever done. Or some of you have trained yourself to eat junk food all during the day. And I'm not saying go overboard. I love desserts. All I'm saying is we should not be under the control of anything. And I'm asking you to examine your everyday habits and make sure that you're not just doing something because that's all you've ever done. We need to get rid of everything that's not productive,

not healthy, not profitable in our lives. And parents, it's very important for us to do our best to not allow our children to have a bunch of junk food. Don't take the easy way out every night and say, oh, let's just run up and get some pizza. Let's get some hot dogs. Let's get some hamburgers. I don't really feel like cooking. No, that's not really fair to your children. You are helping them to form their habits.

And I know with our two kids, when we haven't fed them properly for a couple of days, I can tell it. don't act the same. I mean, they're tired, they're irritable, they don't want to do anything. And it's very easy to get aggravated at them, but sometimes we need to step back and say, now why are my children acting like this? It may be because they had a cupcake and a donut for lunch yesterday. They had pizza and sodas with their friends last night. They came home and we gave them a big piece of birthday cake. They got to bed at 11.30 at night. Nobody's going to feel good after that. Do your part. And sure, you can get by living like that, but I'm talking about the quality of your life. I'm talking about experiencing God's very best. Some people don't manage their time very well.

They're not living a very balanced life. They're always stressed out, always run down. They've gotten into a bad habit of working all the time. They never relax, they never exercise, they never take any free time for themselves. And really just as well, they are not taken care of their temple. And unless they make changes and bring some balance into their life, then, like I said, one day, that's going to catch up to them. You can live stressed out for a while, especially when you're young, but don't be surprised if one day your body doesn't suffer the consequences. And what I'm saying today is it's much better to develop good habits right now. And that's why I'm encouraging you to look at the way you live and ask yourself, why am I doing what I'm doing?

is this just something that's been passed down? It's not a good habit. It's not helping me at all. It's not productive. It's not profitable. See, take inventory of your life and make sure that you're not allowing anything to master you. I know this lady that was trying to quit smoking, and she had smoked for years and years. And she was really determined this time that she was going to stop.

And she had done so well for several weeks. But one day she had this big argument with her husband. She got all aggravated, all upset. And she went down to the store and bought a package of cigarettes. And she thought, I'll show him, I'm going to smoke this whole package. But she said, when she first started to light up that cigarette, something down in here said, you were about to waste all you've been through. You were about to have to start all over and relearn and retrain yourself from the very beginning

just because you can't control your emotions. And she said, when she thought about all she had already been through and how much she had already suffered to get to that point, She made a decision to put it down and not do it. The point is, the enemy will do his best to get you not to change. He will give you plenty of opportunities to turn around and just go back and keep living the same way you've always lived. He doesn't want you to come up higher. And so don't be surprised when you're trying to break some of these habits

that you are not tested. Always remember what the scripture says, there is no temptation that will come to you that you can't overcome. God will always make a way of escape. No matter what it is, how difficult it seems, you need to know that you can withstand it. You've got to dig your heels in and just keep pressing forward. And really, it's kind of funny why we do certain things.

It's because of our habits. It's because of the way we've trained ourselves. And some people, just like this lady, when they get upset, they run out and smoke a cigarette. Other people, when they're stressed out, they'll overeat. They'll run to the kitchen. man, I've had a long day. Give me something to eat.

No, please recognize those are habits. They're not terrible, but they're not productive. They'll keep you in mediocrity. And understand, you can retrain yourself to respond differently to each of those situations. You need to study your own habits. And ask yourself why you do what you're doing. I know some people, every time their spouse does a certain thing, it's just like clockwork. They get upset.

They have a pity party or they won't speak for a couple of weeks. That's a habit. Some of you've been doing things like that for 10, 15, 20 years. Now, why don't you make a decision to form better habits? Why don't you retrain yourself to respond differently when those situations occur? You cannot keep doing the same thing and expect to get different results. Now, I want us all to come up higher in these areas. If you see an area where you're not responded in a positive manner,

Don't make excuses. Take responsibility and say, you know what, I recognize what's happening and I need to change. I'm going to develop better habits. And really, I don't know that we so much break bad habits as we replace bad habits. In other words, if you have a problem with worrying and your mind is always going 90 to nothing, worried about your children, worried about your finances, worried about your health, you need to recognize that is a bad habit that you've developed. That's not normal.

God wants your mind to be at peace. Your mind should be at rest. You need to know God's got you in the palm of his hand. But when you've been worrying for a long time, it's almost second nature to you. You don't even think about it. You just get up in the morning and you start to worry. And the truth is, I don't really think you can just decide to stop worrying.

You have got to replace the negative thoughts with positive, faith-filled thoughts. And every time you're even tempted to worry, you should use that as a reminder. to dwell on good things. The scripture tells us to dwell on things that are pure, things that are wholesome, things that are of a good report. And if you will replace those thoughts of worry with thoughts of hope, thoughts of faith, thoughts of victory,

then you will retrain your mind. If you do that day in and day out before long, it'll become so second nature to you, you will always be dwelling on good things and you'll break that old habit of worry. But see, you've got to find something to replace the habit with. If you overeat and just run to the kitchen every time you get stressed out, find something else to do. Why don't you get in a habit when you feel like that of going outside and taking a little walk?

Another good thing when you're stressed out to just relax you is just go sit back in a chair, close your eyes, and just take five minutes to totally unwind. Take those real deep breaths. And with every breath, just meditate on what God's done for you. Think about the goodness of God in your life. Think about the bright future that you have in store, but find something to replace those desires with. I know from the time I was a little boy, I've always had a habit of picking my fingers. Even in my baby pictures, I'm probably not a year old. I'm sitting there and I got a big smile on my face, but I'm picking my fingers.

It wasn't terrible, but it just wasn't God's best. And over the years, I continued to do it. It's all I'd ever known. Sort of like a nervous habit. And I told myself so many times that I was going to. quit. I said, man, I'm not going to do that anymore. It doesn't look good. But when I got a little uptight or stressed out, I'd do it once again. Just couldn't seem to break it. But one day I learned what I'm sharing with you today that you don't necessarily stop a bad habit. Sometimes you've got to

replace it. And so every time I got tempted to pick my fingers, I just used that as a reminder to thank God for all that he'd done in my life. I changed my focus and I just say, Father, thank you for my health. Thank you for my family. Thank you for my children. Thank you for all that you've done for me. And as I would change my focus and get my mind off of it, I begin to retrain myself. I begin to form that new habit. And even today, when I'm tempted to do that, I'll just let that be a reminder to dwell on the goodness of God. See, I've made up my mind. I'm not going to let picking my fingers master me. I'm not going to be mastered by a bad attitude. I'm not going to be mastered by eating a bunch of junk that's not healthy. And really, that's my message to you today. Don't let

anything master you. Don't come under its control. It may not be a sin. It's just something smaller, but it could be keeping you from God's best. Don't let 20 pounds master you that you just can't lose. No, change your lifestyle. Don't be mastered by being unorganized or by spending too much money or by being late all the time. No, let's form better habits. Let's get rid of everything that's not productive, everything that's not profitable. And remember 90% of what we do every day, we do it without even thinking about it. Our habits are going to determine our future. So I challenge you again, examine your life. Take inventory of those habits. And when you find something that's not right, be quick to change. Be determined to do something about it. If you do that, you will rise higher.

You will see more of God's favor. And you'll live the abundant life he has in store. Amen. How many you receive it this morning. Amen. I know you do. We never like to close our broadcast without giving you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. Friends, if you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again. Get in a good church. Keep God first place. He'll take your places that you've never dreamed of. Thanks so much for to today's message. I hope you'll subscribe so you can receive the latest podcast to keep encouraged and inspired all through the week. Help us to continue to share the message of hope

with those all around the world. Visit Joel Osteen.com or click the link in the description to partner with us today. We hope you'll share this message with a friend and be sure to follow us on social media. We're praying for you. I know God's best is still ahead. We'll see you next time. No one likes to talk about money. Am I saving enough? Can I buy a house? Am I paying too much in taxes? Will I be able to retire?

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