Matt Answers Monster Questions: I want to read the Bible each day, but never seem to have enough time. What can I do?

To understand how to start a good habit, you first have to think about other habits you have.

We have habits around things that we like to do and things that are easy for us to do. These may be good or bad habits. To start a good habit we have to use knowledge of ourselves and from that create effective patterns.

Patterns are actions that we can repeat every day and that will, over time, become habits. Here are some tips on creating patterns.

Start a pattern based on your habits and schedule:
If you are a morning person use that. If you stay up late, then use that. Do not try to shoehorn a new habit into an area of your life that will guarantee failure. If you have trouble getting up in the morning, then don’t try to get up earlier to read the Bible.

Keep the pattern going:
Do it even when you don’t feel like it and even if you don’t do it well. A winning streak matters more than the individual efforts. Maybe you have a bad day and don’t feel like reading the Bible. Do it anyway – make yourself read 5 verses – just a little bit can change your mood, or at least allow you to keep the pattern going.

Try to get the pattern to run downhill:
Think about how to make the pattern more pleasurable. Maybe involve music, going outside, another person, or some tool that helps you establish the pattern. Maybe you have a long commute each day and can get the Bible on CD to listen to in the car.

Try those things and let me know what you think. Next time, I will tell you how to make some really tasty BBQ sauce.

Matt Answers Monster Questions: How do I know when to wait for God to lead or to figure things out for myself?

I think a lot of people talk about waiting to hear from God to either do what they want to do or to not do the things that they know they should do.

We are not automatons (mindless robots) waiting for the next instruction from God. We should be in a relationship with God. People who are in a relationship are in communication and will know what actions:

1. Enrich the relationship
2. Erode the relationship
3. Have no effect on the relationship

Often WE want what WE want and will pretend that God wants that too or that God may not have an opinion on it.

The best way to get on the same page with God is to:

1. Serve others: in your home and at your job.
2. Give your honors to God: your titles, your accomplishments, your status.
3. Let go of material things: Identify the thing that you value the most and ask yourself if you could give it away.
4. Meet with others who want to know God.
5. Study God’s word.
6. Pray.

Matt Answers Monster Questions: Why did God make us?

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and when I ran out of ideas I asked my Thursday night small group what they thought. The universal sentiment was that they really don’t know either – some help they were.

However, we do know that God loves us. We know that God sacrificed a lot to save us from our sins. We also know that we are made in God’s image (though marred by original sin).

More interestingly, we know that the universe is a very large place and as beings that will live forever, we will have a lot of space to roam around in.

Many of us do not think that God made us because he was lonely. The closest thing that I can draw on is from my personal experience of having children. Karen and I did not have children because we felt lonely or incomplete. We had children as a natural outgrowth of who we are. Maybe the answer is as simple and as abstract as that.

Un-Offendable Christians! Watta Concept!

"Much time is spent among Christians trying to smooth over hurt feelings and even deep wounds, given and received, and to get people to stop being angry, retaliatory, and unforgiving. But suppose, instead, we devoted our time to inspiring and enabling Christians and others to be people who are not offendable and not angry and who are forgiving as a matter of course." - Dallas Willard

Good to Remember

"God has given us our ministries. We don't have to prove our worth through our ministry, and we don't have to wallow in our mistakes. You don't have to earn your place as a pastor or leader in the church." - Rick Warren