How You Can Walk Step by Step into a Brand-New Life

• (Courtesy of Joyce Meyer Ministries)

I have read that as much as 40 percent of everything we do is performed purely out of habit. A habit is something we do without even thinking. It's a behavior that is developed through frequent repetition. First we form habits…and then they form us. We are what we repeatedly do!
That's why it is so important to focus on establishing healthy habits. Bad habits are detrimental and keep us from enjoying all that God has for us. However, good habits add joy, peace and purpose to our lives.
Now, I'm not going to tell you that it's easy. If we're going to make a good habit and break a bad habit, there's going to be some effort involved. We will go through a time of trial. But we don't have to go through it alone…
It's very important to understand from the beginning that we need God's help to succeed. The number one mistake people make is that we try to change ourselves…we forget that we can't do it without God!
Jesus said that when He went away, He would send the Holy Spirit to help us. The Amplified Bible refers to Him as "the Standby" (John 16:7). I love that. God is always standing by in case we get ourselves into trouble and need a little help. He is our Partner – our Strength and Support – as we begin to establish good habits in our lives and break the bad ones.
Where We Start and Where We Finish
I used to have a habit of getting upset every time I didn't get my way. It was an automatic response – and I lived that way for many years until I finally decided to stop and allow God to help me in that area.
Today, I want to encourage you to make some decisions of your own. Think about the person you are right now and the person you want to become, and then jot down a few new habits that can help you get there.
Remember, one good choice is another step closer to your goal.
One Scripture I've found to be most helpful in this area is Romans 12:21. It says, Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good (AMP).
In other words, don't dwell on your bad habits. Instead, put all of your focus and concentration on making good ones. Because when we think about all the bad habits we've got to try and undo, it zaps all of our strength. If we're going to make progress, we need to learn to focus on the positive!

Similarly, the Bible tells us that by walking in the Spirit, we overcome the flesh (see Galatians 5:16). The "flesh" is simply our human nature apart from God.
Do everything you can to consistently follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Read the Word and meditate on it. Set aside time for prayer. Get around people who will encourage you to do what God's asking you to do. Don't give yourself the time or energy to do what your flesh is pleading with you to do.
If you make a quality decision to act, it will change your life. But you can't wait to feel like it. With God's grace, just set your mind to do it!
How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit?
Some people say it takes twenty-one days to form a habit. Others say it takes thirty days. So let's just say that anything you do (or don't do) repeatedly for a period of time becomes a habit.
I used to smoke many years ago. And when God started convicting me to quit, I didn't want to do it – and it was very hard for me to stop. In fact, it took several attempts to quit before I broke this habit.
When I reached the point of sheer determination to quit, the first day was bad. And the second day wasn't much better! I managed to make it to the weekend, but then Dave and I had an argument at a picnic and I ended up leaving by myself to go buy a pack of cigarettes. My plan was to smoke the entire pack.
You see, when we're trying to form a new habit, we usually reach what I call a "crisis point."
That day at the picnic, I reached my crisis point. After I got those cigarettes I sat there and thought, If I smoke these right now, I'll likely be doing it the rest of my life and I'm not going to do that. So I took every single cigarette out of the package and threw them in the toilet.
Every now and then, I'd still think: I want a cigarette. But after about thirty days, I could tell my desire to smoke had changed. I just didn't want to do it. And I've never smoked another cigarette again.
Taking That First Step
Some habits in our lives can seem overwhelming and impossible to change – especially if we have lived with them for a long time. But God will meet us where we are. When we are willing to take that first step, He honors our faith and gives us the grace to make the changes that we desire.
Things may not turn around overnight, but if you are diligent and determined to never give up, you will succeed…because together, one day at a time, you and God can do anything.

Joyce Meyer is a New York Times bestselling author and founder of Joyce Meyer Ministries, Inc. She has authored more than 90 books, including Battlefield of the Mind and Do Yourself a Favor…Forgive (Hachette). She hosts the Enjoying Everyday Life radio and TV programs, which air on hundreds of stations worldwide. For more information, visit www.joycemeyer.org.

(Photo: Reuters/Azad Lashkari)

Iraq's Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani shakes hands with Pope Francis' personal envoy to Iraq Cardinal Fernando Filoni in Arbil at Iraq's Kurdistan region, August 13, 2014.

Pope Francis has reached out to an Iraqi priest helping refugees who are fleeing terror group ISIS and are said to be in a "miserable" situation, telling the priest that he is always with him in prayer.
"'I read your letter,' said the Pope. He said he was very sorry for everything that was happening to us and he said, 'Know that I am with you in prayer always. I never forget you,'" Fr. Behnam Benoka told CNA on Sunday, recalling the pontiff's phone call.
Benoka had written to the pope to tell him of the dire situation thousands of refugees, including many Christians, face in Iraq as they continue fleeing violence from ISIS.
The priest's letter to Francis, published in Arabic and Italian, read in part:
"Holiness, the situation of your sheep is miserable, dying and hungry, your little ones are afraid and cannot go on. We, priests and religious, are few and are afraid of not being able to meet the physical and mental demands of your and our children.
"I would like to thank you so much, in fact, very much because you always carry us in your heart, putting us there on the altar where the mass is celebrated so that God erases out sins and has mercy on us, and perhaps takes this up away from us."
ISIS, an al Qaeda offshoot, has captured a number of cities across Iraq and Syria, proclaiming an "Islamic State" in the region and carrying out many atrocities, including mass rapes and beheading of children.
Benoka revealed that he is running a make-shift clinic in Ankawa, Iraq, near Erbil, where many of the people have found refuge from the violence. Over 70,000 Christians have fled to Erbil, which is the capital city of Kurdistan.

Francis has spoken out strongly against the persecution of Christians and other minorities in the past, urging the international community to find a way to stop ISIS' actions.
"In these cases, where there is an unjust aggression, I can only say that it is licit to stop the unjust aggressor," Pope Francis told journalists in August. "I underscore the verb 'stop.' I'm not saying 'bomb' or 'make war,' just 'stop.' And the means that can be used to stop them must be evaluated."
The Roman Catholic Church leader told Benoka that he has sent Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, to check on the situation at the refugee camps and report back to him.
Benoka spoke of his gratitude to the pope for the personal phone call, and said that it felt like "when you're a kid and you have a problem or an emergency and your Mom and Dad are the first to come to mind because you know they'll defend and protect you."
"It was like that, calling the person that could help us the most. I was able to get word through to him, and it felt like this, like a true father," he added.
Another Catholic priest in Iraq said that many Christian refugees feel helpless, and are angry at government soldiers who abandoned them to ISIS extremists after the militants began their attacks.
"The people are angry because the government just gave up on them. They told us that, in Mosul, where there had normally been a presence of 60,000 soldiers, after the onslaught of ISIS, in only a matter of hours, these soldiers abandoned them, laying down their weapons," said Fr Rami Wakim, the secretary to Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham.
Fr. Wakim was part of a delegation of Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs who visited Erbil in August to show their solidarity with the persecuted minorities.
Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholics, who was also part of the delegation, added:
"We want all the Christians, Muslims, Yezidis, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds to stay in Iraq and not to leave because this is our homeland, this is our culture, and civilization and we do not want to part with it," Rai said.
"The ones who want to help us must work to stop injustice, help us end injustice and help our people regain their rights. This is what we want from the ones who want to help."

kari Jobe on "MAJESTIC".

Kari Jobe is well-known in Christian music, but with her latest live CD/DVD release, she's unequivocally establishing herself as a worship leader. Jesusfreakhideout.com's Mark D. Geil caught up with Kari to find out about more about Majestic.


JFH (Mark D. Geil): You've mentioned that this project project represents a new sound or a new approach. Can you tell me what's different this time around?

Kari Jobe: All my albums have pretty much been studio projects. [The fact] that this is live is really exciting because it captures my heart for worship, how I lead worship. If you haven't been to a night of worship that I've led, you'll be able to hear this and understand.

JFH (Mark): I assume it was different leading all new material in front of a group that may have never heard any of the songs before. What was that like?

Kari: The good thing is people caught on quickly. I think that's a good sign for some of the more congregational songs that are on the project. I could tell the people came ready. They knew they had to catch on to the songs so they could help sing them on the project. It really helped. We did two nights. That was helpful too, because there was not as much pressure to capture it all perfectly the first time.

JFH (Mark): Tell me about The Majestic.

Kari: It was built in 1918, and all the original stuff is there. The original chandelier they had is still there. It's very nostalgic, like going to a theater experience in the 20s. Also, my favorite thing was hearing the people sing. It's theater style seating so you could hear the people so loudly. It was awesome; I loved the whole experience. I just smiled the entire night.

JFH (Mark): I want to talk a bit about modern worship music in general. It's still thriving. A lot of people look for trends in Christian music and counted worship music as a trend, which is almost impossible to say if we're doing it right. But, we still have Passion and Hillsong and Jesus Culture and Bethel going strong. I do recognize that styles change over time, so I wonder how you see modern worship still growing and changing right now and what it might look like in the future.

Kari: I think a lot of times we as worship leaders are responding to the people, wanting to lead the people who are coming to these nights of worship, wanting to lead them well. I've noticed over the last year a change in the people. They aren't coming to be entertained anymore, they're coming so ready to sing out and to worship the Lord because they are hungry for more of the presence of God. That's been pretty amazing to watch. You can go into any song that they know and they close their eyes and their hands are up in the air immediately and they just go for it. There's hardly any pastoring or leading that has to take place sometimes because they're so ready. What it does to worship leaders is that we have to come completely full of the word of God too. If people are coming that hungry and are looking to us to be led, I want to lead them well. I want to give them songs that are helping them say things to the Lord that they want to say. Strong songs, not just feel-good songs, that really get to the core of what we want to say to God in our praise and worship.

JFH (Mark): How does that feed into your songwriting, knowing that it's not just entertainment, that people are hungry for something?

Kari: We have the Bible open so much for writing songs. Also, there's a community aspect to it as worship leaders. When I'm sitting down to write with Brian Johnson and the guys from Bethel, or Jesus Culture, or Tomlin, we talk about what we're seeing happening in these nights and what we feel God saying. Not that we have the right thing to say or that we have it all together… worship leading is the broken, hungry, and desperate leading the broken, hungry, and desperate to find the Lord. If we're writing songs that are helping us connect to God than they're probably going to help others connect to the Lord too. You can't lead someone where you haven't been. I might say, "Here's what God has been doing in my life, here's what He's saying to me. Let's write from that place." Usually it will apply to other people too.

JFH (Mark): You mentioned co-writing and you have a pretty extraordinary list of co-writers on this project. Did you seek those folks out as you went, or how did that process work?

Kari: They're all relationships now. Through the years, God has expanded my territory in friendships. I truly call these people friends, and ministry friends, and we've all written before. In this project, I knew we had to write together again because it was a super-congregational live worship album.

JFH (Mark): Talk about a song where you just clicked with a co-writer and things just happened that you didn't expect to happen.

Kari: On "Forever," I saw that happen. That was the first song that Brian Johnson and I had written together. We know each other, we're friends, and we said, "Hey, we should probably write something together sometime." Also, "How Majestic," the title track, was actually sent to me by Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin. They said, "We started this song, and we keep thinking about you. Would you want to help us finish writing it? At first I thought, "let me hear it and see if it's something that I can sing," but then I learned that it was called "How Majestic." I had just booked the Majestic for the recording. I was like, "Well, God you must be up to something!" The Lord just goes before us, even in songs.

JFH (Mark): There is often a long time between recording and the actual release. What's coming next for you?

Kari: This is going to shift everything in my life, to where people really get it, "She really is a worship leader, when we go to concerts they're going to be nights of worship." I'm excited for that shift to happen. People who might have just heard a few of my songs are getting it now, that it's really worship.

JFH (Mark): I hadn't thought of that possibility of a misconception.

Kari: This is the core of who I am, this is what I've done since I was a little girl. Now the music backs that up more than I feel that it ever has. I'm praying that I can just keep writing. I feel like I want to be a good steward of what God is putting in my heart for the church, and lead people in that way better in my songwriting.

JFH (Mark): Do you write in seasons, or are you one of those who constantly has the notebook handy.

Kari: I try to keep the notebook handy, but as far as finishing songs, I do that in seasons. I'll go back to material or ideas that I've written along the way. Then I go back and listen and say, "That's horrible," or, "This is pretty decent, I think I'll play this for somebody and see if we want to write on it."

JFH (Mark): That process takes so much discipline. I don't think people realize that.

Kari: I think songwriting is probably the hardest thing that I do. It's a lot of work and a lot of crafting, it takes parts of your brain that you don't always want to use, or at least that I don't always want to use.

JFH (Mark): Tell me about your growth as a songwriter over all the years you've been doing this?

Kari: I feel like I would have come to a point where it would be easier or that there would be a good method, but the best songs that I've been a part of were not over-planned. They come just out of an overflow of my heart, when I sit at the piano and just worship the Lord by myself and start singing a song and I'm not thinking, "Oh, I'm writing a new song." Those are the stronger songs over the years, more than anything that was forced or written quickly. "You Are for Me," a song that I wrote eight years ago now, it took four years to write. It wasn't a song I was writing with anyone in mind. It was a song where I was sitting at the piano bawling my head off - it was a theme I needed to get. He sees me, He knows I'm in this place, He's for me. Then later I thought, "I wonder if this is a song other people would want to sing?" It's usually best to worship the Lord with the songs first. He'll tell us if they're for other people.