Your Habits Determine Your Spiritual Growth

[Your Habits Determine Your Spiritual Growth]( Current Teaching Series [40 Days of Prayer]( [Listen to Today's Broadcast]( [Your Habits Determine Your Spiritual Growth]( By Rick Warren — 08/04/2021 [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:25 (NIV) National Football League Quarterback Tom Brady won his seventh championship ring this year as the oldest player to appear in a Super Bowl. How did he get to be so good? There’s a whole list of things Brady does to stay in peak performance mentally, physically, and emotionally, including drinking 20 ounces of water as soon as he wakes up every morning. He’s developed healthy habits that have paid off for him. You grow when you develop good habits. This applies to every area of your life, including your spiritual growth. When you build good habits in your life, you’re going to have good character. If you have good character, you’re going to have a great destiny. Your character is the sum total of your habits. The Bible says, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17 NIV). You don’t get God’s blessing for knowing the right thing to do. You get God’s blessing for doing the right thing and making it a habit in your life. How do you build habits? Through repetition and practice. Study after study shows you have to do something—whether it’s exercise, diet, or a spiritual habit—every day for six weeks before it becomes a habit. Doing a few days of study and then skipping a day and then repeating the pattern over and over again is like rolling up a ball of string and dropping it. You keep undoing everything you’ve gained every time you miss a day of Bible study. You have to develop habits in your life that you’ll use the rest of your life that will help you grow and be strong. Successful people are just normal people who decide to develop good habits that stay with them for the rest of their lives. You determine your habits, and your habits determine you. “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25 NIV). The good habits you build in your spiritual life are going to pay off forever in eternity. [PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>]( Talk It Over - This time next year, how do you want to have grown spiritually? What will it take to get there? Write out a step by step plan to keep you on track. - Too often we set goals with unrealistic timelines or expectations. You don’t have to get it all done this week! What is one small thing you can do every day that, over time, will make a difference in your spiritual growth? - How does accountability with another person help you grow spiritually and in every other area of your life? The post [Your Habits Determine Your Spiritual Growth]( appeared first on [Pastor Rick's Daily Hope](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( [Get the 40 Days of Prayer Study Kit when you give a gift to support Daily Hope]( At one point or another everyone faces disappointments, obstacles, and circumstances that seem impossible to overcome. Whether it’s a struggling marriage, health crisis, financial loss, wounds from our past, or something else altogether, life’s struggles leave us desperate for a breakthrough. God sees you, hears your cries, and is ready to respond. But breakthroughs don’t happen spontaneously, they happen when you seek them. And the way you seek them is through prayer. In his life-changing, 6-session DVD and workbook study, 40 Days of Prayer, Pastor Rick helps you cultivate a powerful prayer life! You’ll learn how to pray for a breakthrough—and how to pray with more confidence and greater faith than ever before. [LEARN MORE]( [Complete Audio Series (Purchase)]( Includes 7 full-length messages from Pastor Rick's series 40 Days of Prayer. [LEARN MORE]( [Series Summary]( Message 1: Do You Really Want to Grow Up? Message 2: A Beginner's Guide to Prayer Message 3: Who Do You Think You Are Talking To? Message 4: Praying in Five Dimensions Message 5: How to Pray Throughout Your Day Message 6: How to Pray for Healing and Restoration Message 7: When God Says "No" [PLAY TODAY'S BROADCAST]( Pastor Rick Warren [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Linkedin]( Enjoy today's devotional? Listen to Pastor Rick’s daily audio teaching at [PastorRick.com]( Did someone forward this devotional to you? [Subscribe to Pastor Rick Warren's Daily Devotional.]( As the founding pastor of Saddleback Church with his wife Kay, Dr. Rick Warren leads a 30,000-member congregation in California with campuses in major cities around the world. As an author, his book [The Purpose Driven Life]( is one of the best-selling nonfiction books in publishing history. It has been translated into 74 languages and sold more than 50 million copies in all formats. His book [The Purpose Driven Church]( was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the century. Rick also founded [The PEACE Plan]( to address five global issues—spiritual emptiness, self-serving leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy—through the power of ordinary people in the local church. You can listen to Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope, his daily 25-minute audio teaching, and sign up for his free daily devotionals at [PastorRick.com](. © 2021 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission. You can unsubscribe by clicking the link below. Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, 23182 Arroyo Vista, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688, United States