Habits are an important part of life. They can be good or bad! We want to acquire good habits. But how would we get habits in the first place?

I was going to get an ultrasound to find out the due date of my second child. As I sat in the waiting room, thumbing through a woman’s health magazine, I couldn’t help but notice the other people come in and out.
 
A young, married couple was looking at pictures of their new little one that they were going to have very soon. Another woman in her fifties sat rigidly, waiting to have a mammogram. But the woman that came in next caught my attention.

​“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose name is Holy;
I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”—Isaiah 57:15
 
What a delight to study God’s character as revealed in His Word! When I consider His impeccable character, His unmatched beauty, His magnificent power, I declare with the psalmist, “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visiteth him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour….O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8) What a mighty God we serve! Yet He cares for us as the sheep of His pasture, He holds us in His right hand of righteousness, He knows the number of hairs on our head, He puts our tears in a bottle...what love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God (1 John 3:1)!

​Discouragement. Do you ever find yourself discouraged? Maybe today you are having a less-than-optimal day, and are discouraged over your own failures. We all have days when we feel more keenly our own sinfulness and inability to fully obey the Lord.

I remember one particular summer morning. I woke up with good intentions to honor the Lord; however, within one hour, these hopes were dashed by several failures in the very areas I had been praying for victory. I had been desiring change and had prayed that the Lord would grant victory—and then, I had failed this quickly! I felt like a complete failure and wondered if, in any of my infant-like haltering steps, I ever would make any progress forward. It seemed like every time I thought I had made one frail step forward, I took a fall backward.

I wearily went to my devotional time that morning, without an enthusiasm for reading the Word. I sat dejectedly at my desk, not even reaching to open my Bible. All joy had fled, as I looked over the wickedness of my life. My thoughts condemningly nagged, “Who are you to say you are even a Christian when you fail like this every day? What kind of example are you, anyway?” A faint cry for forgiveness passed through my lips, as I slowly moved for the Bible. I opened it, flipping to the passage where David had cried out in humble forgiveness for his great sin (Psalm 51). I came across his earnest words and my heart echoed, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions!” I knew my Lord's lovingkindness and mercy was so great (Psalm 69:16)...but I also knew I did not deserve it. For some reason, in my proud discouragement, I did not want to so easily fall back to rest in His forgiveness. However, He is always faithful to forgive, no matter what our sins are. We must chose to accept and embrace this glorious truth! “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).