When not to use your willpower

A big part of spiritual growth comes from spiritual disciplines.

These are things like reading the Bible, praying, and fasting. But also worshiping, serving, and learning.

In other words, spiritual disciplines are the things we do on our road to sanctification.

A friend and I were talking about this the other day and how many people in the church want to grow but don’t practice spiritual disciplines.

“People just need to do it,” he said flatly. “It’s as simple as that.”

But what if it weren’t?

What if willpower (the “just do it” part) was actually the worst way to go about spiritual disciplines?

(In case you missed it, this is the main idea behind my book Life Hacking Spiritual Disciplines).

As it turns out, willpower is a good starter. But it’s not how we keep going. And it’s certainly not how we’re successful.

What then?

Habits.

A lot of people think habits are mindless. But they’re not. They’re momentum. The more you can weave spiritual disciplines into the fabric of your daily life, the less you’ll rely on willpower, and the more you’ll see results.