The old cliche, ‘old habits are hard to break’, is in many cases nothing more than an excuse for the Christian.

Follow my thought pattern for a moment.  When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we’re admitting that we’re a mess, and that drastic changes must take place in our life.  We have hit the point where God has convicted us of our sins and that repentance is what is needed to clean our lives up.

Repentance, is the optimum word.

Repentance, is NOT slowing down or taking a break from sin.  Repentance is knowing what you’re doing is wrong, and that you can no longer continue in that activity.  So instead of slowing down or just taking a break from it, you recognize the problem and knowingly and willingly totally turn around and direct your life in the polar opposite direction.

We get into trouble by not totally changing direction.  And we’re still in the face of sin so it becomes more tempting. It seems to give us ‘permission’ to ‘slip’ back into that sin, and make comments such as, ‘Oh you know, old habits are just so hard to break.’.

Sorry, I don’t believe it for a minute.  If this ‘old habit’ issue was a one time thing, or even maybe a couple of time, I could almost buy into it.  But the reality is, we never ‘slip up’ just once or twice.  In reality we never truly stopped our sinful habit.

See what Paul told the church at Corinth, in 2 Corinthians 5:17.  When we accept Christ, we’re a NEW creation!  NEW!!!  And that old self is gone! He then says that ALL THINGS have become NEW!

What are you still holding on to?  Is there something in your sinful past that keeps reaching out to you?  Remember, repentance is turning away from your sin.

Repentance is not about changing habits.  It’s the changing of a life style.  It’s the removal of things, places, language, and sometimes even people that keeps drawing us back to our ‘old self’.

If your new life doesn’t reflect Christ, then you’ve never let go of the old life.  And if you’re still living in your old life yet claiming the new life, you’re telling the world that there really isn’t any difference between Christian living and worldly living.

Remember this, we’re called to be holy…not worldly.  You can do this!