Familiar Places - Bad Habits

All bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander must be removed from you, along with all wickedness.
Ephesians 4:31, HCSB

Every time you've gone back to your old ways of getting relief or revenge, every time you've reacted without thinking or given in when you should have toughed it out, you've widened the entrance ramp onto the easy street of compromise.
You've made it that much easier to come back for a return trip next time you're worn down and upset -- when things just aren't going your way. That's really what bad habits are -- wide, open highways that you know like the back of your hand. Roads you've traveled so many times that you could drive them with your eyes closed. But you know you have no business being out there. You know you'll eventually dead-end into regrets and apologies.
And if you just had the strength, you'd whip that car around right now and take the straight and narrow path that could lead you to something better.
So do it, because now your "no" has the power of God behind it. And every time you lean hard into His side for the strength to resist, you close another entrance ramp. You shut down another access road. You play dead to the call of the highway. You win over habitual sin.

This Week's Look-Up Verse
Ephesians 4:25-32
Reference it now in the Online Bible Tool provided by LifeWay.com.