Keystone Habits

THIS WEEK’S BOLD STEP DEVOTION

It’s mid-January which means that many Americans are desperately trying to stick to an ambitious new year’s resolution. Grand plans to lose weight, exercise more or get on a budget are hard to turn into daily actions and many are at a loss with how to realistically attain these big resolutions. One survey I found said that 80% of resolutions don’t even stick until February!

I believe that resolutions only succeed if they’re attached to a habit. Habits are formed through conditioning where a behavior is learned through reinforcement. Someone once said that to develop a habit, you must do something for 21 days in a row- then the action will turn into a habit. For example, each time you take a shower, you reinforce the habit of getting clean and engage in conditioning. Once habits are created, it’s harder to let them fall to the wayside.

For the Christian, it’s critical that we develop habits to grow spiritually because spiritual growth doesn’t happen automatically. “Keystone habits” such as reading your Bible, having daily devotions, or engaging God through prayer can have a chain reaction in the believer’s life to becoming more like Jesus. I find that building your life around these key habits rather than fitting them in when you can, lays the path for joy as we grow in knowledge and holiness.

This year, I’d love for you to join me in developing the keystone habit of prayer in your life. Prayer is the bridge between God and His people and for those who love Him. It is an intimate and personal communication between us and God where we express our daily need for Him.

In today’s message, I give a crash course on how to use the Lord’s Prayer as a template for your own prayer life so that you can learn to pray more like Jesus. You’ll also glean six key steps contained within the Lord’s Prayer that I believe will lead you into a richer and more meaningful way of talking to and hearing from the Lord.

Listen to the sermon series: The Power of Prayer

Part 1Part 2

Ministry Update from Mark

It’s been 28 years since my dad, Robert Allen Jobe Sr., went to be with the Lord at the age of 60. I’m forever grateful that at age 18, he responded to the message of the Good News of Jesus at a Youth for Christ rally in Gary, Indiana. He then had the courage to follow God’s call on his life and leave the security of this country to serve in Spain alongside my mom. It was my dad who modeled for me that loving God and loving people with simplicity and sincerity should be my highest calling in life. When I sheepishly pursued the pastorate at age 21, he was the one who looked at me and declared that he would be honored to have me as his pastor. What a defining moment in my life that I now seek to live out. Pray with me that I can continue to be bold for the gospel and live out the legacy he and my mom entrusted to me and my family!