The Danger of Habituation

Raymond (not his real name) has been a Christian for more than two decades and he is an active Church leader. He is a regular song leader, Holy Communion steward, usher in a Local AOG Church for the last five years. He is a faithful churchgoer, but familiar routine of his Church and his pastor have left him feeling stale and cold. Raymond listens to"dynamic" sermons about Jesus and the Gospel of the Kingdom, but he feels empty. He listens to the messages on faith and answers the altar-call, but he feels untouched. He hears wonderful testimonies of his fellow churchgoers and yet he is - well, bored!

Now, Raymond isn't happy about this situation. In fact, he is having a rough struggle with it. He knows something has gone wrong, and he is afraid his heart is drifting away from the Lord. Although Raymond longs for a fresh awareness of God, he is at a loss as to what he must do to find it.

What has happened to Raymond? He has run into one of the worst barriers any Christian can face in his walk with God - habituation. Habituation is the experience of growing accustomed to something by the process of being continually exposed to it. In other words, it is the act of becoming so familiar with some circumstance or event that the experience of it requires only a second-nature, mechanical response on the individual's part.

Let me illustrate. Imagine yourself walking into a large factory for the first time. You probably would be greatly annoyed by the clamor of the machines around you. Yet, the factory workers, engrossed in the work they are doing, seem oblivious to the extreme noise of their environment. The workers have obviously become "habituated" to the sound of the machines; that is, they have become so accustomed to the noise level of the machines that, for all practical purposes, they are able to shut out the noise and not let it effect them. On the other hand, an outsider to the factory routine would be greatly bothered by it.

Here is another illustration. Whenever Kelly get into trouble as a youngster, her mum would usually begin her lecture with one of the following two statements - "Kelly, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times ..." Or "Kelly, a smart girl only takes one time to learn." By the time Kelly was a teenager, her mum's point of view had become quite familiar with to her, and as a result, her attention often wandered while her mum was speaking. Mum would begin one of her "sermons" and Kelly would look at her and nod her head, while proceeding to shut out her mum's words from the moment she began her introductory remarks. Since Kelly assumed that she knew what her mum was going to say before she even spoke, Kelly missed many opportunities to really listen and learn from her mum.

We tune out noise, we tune out voices; in fact, our tendency is to tune out just about anything we've heard over and over again. It shouldn't surprise us then to realize that, in much the same way, we tune out God!

Habituation in Church Service/Activities

In general, Church services/activities consist of weekly worship service, prayer meeting, and cell-group meeting. I wonder how many of our worship services, personal prayer times, prayer meetings and cell-group meetings have been hampered because of the repetitious nature of our petitions and our lack of a flexible, creative response to God.

Worship Service

Some Local Churches foster an atmosphere that caters to those who, for one reason or another, are not interested in growing closer to God. The congregation is never challenged to make anything more than a passive response in Scriptural truth. Ofter the order of worship is repetitive each week, allowing the people to become so accustomed to responding the same way at the same time that their hearts and minds are scarcely involved at all!

In these Churches, the words we say and the songs we sing have little impact on our lives because we have learned to do them routinely. Since we feel we know what is expected of us, we can tune out words and truths that once might have deeply affected us. The result? We become more like professional churchgoers than devoted worshipers. Although we attend Church, we never allow our hearts to experience closeness to God. All the while we deceive ourselves that He is happy with or effort. But the truth is, He is not.

The Lord said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me. And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men. Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among these people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden" (Isaiah 29:13, 14).

Although the people of Isaiah's day had given lip service to the the Lord, their reverence fear for Him was taught by the commandment of men - retual carried out without understanding, or mechanically done. In other words, performance of their traditions had blinded them to what was really important - having their hearts sold out to God. The sad fact is that, they were unaware of how far they had strayed from God's purposes. Isaiah was called by God to warn them of this unfortunate course.

Someone once said, "The seven most destructive words in Church history are - 'We've always done it this way before,'" The people of God like to "camp out" in situations that are familiar to them. Contemplating change and opening the door to what is new and unforeseen can create a real challenge to our faith and be very threatening. But there is a danger in keeping the Church rigidly structured, thereby cutting off the sponteneous moving of the Holy Spirit. The resulting habituation will be negative influence on the spiritual lives of the people.

A pastor of a Local Church seems to understand the above problem. As soon as the singing is completed he asks the congregation to change their sitting positions - right to the left, left to the centre/right, centre/right to the left and so on. He did this before the preaching. By doing so he makes the situation even worse. He quenches the Holy Spirit! He fails to understand that worship (singing) and preaching of Gods Word must be "integrated" in order to let the Holy Spirit to move freely in the Worship Service.

It is important to understand that we can become unresponsive to the sermon if it is given by the same person each and every week. As we become familiar with our pastor's main points of emphasis and his overall preaching style, we may be able to anticipate what he is going to say even before he makes his point. Since we assume that we know what his message is going to be, we easily tune out his words and then complain that we are not getting anything out of what he is saying! As a result, thousands of Christians aren't getting spiritually fed in their Churches, not because the pastor is not speaking God's Word, but because the congregation has grown "dull of hearing" (Heb. 5:11).

Prayer Meeting

Most prayer meetings are somewhat structured and predictable - sing 7 or 8 worship songs, time of testimonies, prayer items and followed by a very short time of prayer. People seem to prefer to give testimonies than praying. Most of the songs are repetitive. When people first learned the songs, they were fresh, alive, and full of meaning. Yet, it eventually became little more that a mere repetition of words because people had grown so used to singing it. The beautiful lyrics, once so inspiring to them, could no longer stimulate their spiritual growth because habituation had occurred.

We become habituated not only by what we continually hear, but by what we constantly do. Whether we stand or sit as we worship, lift our hands, clap our hands, say a prayer, even with a "special and artificial" tone of voice, kneel or bend backward, sooner or later these experiences can lose their freshness and vitality. They then become automatic, devoid of genuine heart involvement.


Cell-group Meeting


Cell-group meeting is just the same. We choose a few familiar songs - it can take some time because not everyone liks the same songs. Someone (usually the host) says the opening prayer. Depending on the Cell leaders, some emphasize on singing, some emphasize on praying for one another's needs and some emphasize on serving much food and drinks. But whatever the emphasis, everything is predictable and automatic, week after week and habituation soon becomes apparent.

In all the above activities, after some time, our times together lost their freshness, giving way to spiritual staleness. Gone was the anticipation that God would intervene our meetings. We sang some good songs, prayed some good prayers, and be ministered to by timely good sermons. Even so, something was missing. Habituation had set in and our activities had become more mechanical than spiritual. Our routines came more from our minds than our hearts and, as a result, we missed out on some potential opportunities for growth.


Recognizing the Danger of Habituation


Practicing empty routines and traditions won't please the Lord and won't do much for your Christian growth, either. Nevertheless, thousands of individuals, and oftentimes entire Churches, have bee stifled by their reliance on religious habits - repeating the some words, the same songs, and the same patterns - instead of allowing God to move them in creative, new directions and bring back the sparkle to their walk with Him. This is when habituation cripples us the most. It causes us to lose our flexibility in being led by the Spirit, since we find it more comfortable to settle back in habit patterns that have worked well in the past, even if they lack the ability to keep us interested now.


Enjoying the Lord


The psalmist said: "You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Ps. 16:11).


"Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing" (Ps. 100:2).


No matter what our circumstance in life, God invites us to live closely with Him and bask in the joy of His presence. He wants us, not only to dwell in His presence, but also to enjoy Him.


If you are a preacher and you are invited to speak in a particular congregation of believers. It is likely that you have prayed, sweated, and agonized over the sermon God wanted you to share. If, after spending hours seeking the Lord for a "mighty message" you still had no direction, no inspiration and leading of the Holy Spirit, it is time for you to "be still" (Ps. 46:10) and enjoy the Lord. You must allow your heart to be at rest before Him so that He could lead you. God wants you to speak a word for Him, but this word would flow naturally into your heart if your desire wasn't just to "get the correct message," but to enjoy Him as well.


How easy it is for activities that once were meaningful in our Christian lives to degenerate into mere ritualistic excercise. Whether it be studying the Bible, having a daily prayer time, attending Chuch services or functions (all of which are good), it is possible to perform them mechanically without experiencing the joy of the Lord. Remember the Bible says: "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).


Being a Christian is not mindlessly responding to a set of religious rituals; it is not simple "doing the do's" and "avoiding the don'ts." It is a relatioship to enjoyed - expressing our heart with freedom, laughing and having fun together, showing warmth, love, and acceptance, and sharing an oneness of purpose. But many believers don't picture their walk with God in these terms. To them, relating to God isn't joyful experience. It's work, it's drudgery - it could hardly be described as fun!


A Vision beyond ourselves


A good way in overcoming habituation is to maintian a vision of how God can use our lives to further His eternal purposes.


Solomon said: "Where ther is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law" (Prob. 29:18, NAS).


The word "vision" can also be translated "revelation," - God unfolding Himself and His purpose to the human race. Without this vision we become unrestrained, or literally "out of control." The context suggest that people without vision will cast off all restraints and, as a result, fail to keep God's Word. They become undisciplined and cease to follow the Lord's direction for their lives and their happiness departs.


Many believers begin their spiritual journeys with the realization that God has a plan for their lives, only to lose sight of this truth after a time. To them, the only plan that unfolds the "exciting" and "abundant life" of gutting our daily quiet times and pushing themselves to attend a few Church meetings/services/activities each week. There is a whole lot more to our walk with Christ than this! God's purpose is for us to joyfully fulfill a place of Christian service. He is committed to extending His Kingdom throughout the earth and He wants us to be His vessels to bring men and women under the Lordship of Christ. This awareness should capture our hearts and inspire us to prepare for the task ahead!


Embracing this wider vision stretches us to be all that we can be for God. It stimulates growth, it rallies us to prepare, it challenges us to let Him use us beyond our wisdom and capabilities. It causes us to trust Him, for unless we do, we run the risk of failing miserably.


Someone once said, "If your vision isn't bigger than yourself (i.e. what you can accomplish by your own efforts), it probably isn't from God." He loves to place before us certain opportunities or tasks that can only be accomplished by His provision.


Moses was asked to do something quite impossible for him to do in his own strength - lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. Joshua was asked to conquer the Canaanites with a group of people who had little military experience. Gideon was asked to defeat the Midianites with just three hundred men by his side. We could go on and on with such Biblical examples. Like these men, we too will be called by God to expand our faith and do things beyond our own capabilities.


By His grace, God imparts an ongoing vision for our lives - a vision that motivates us to persevere and inspires us to overcome the crippling disease of habituation whenever it appears. This vision must grip our attention and captivate our hearts! Its fulfillment does not rest upon what we can do in our natural ability. God alone can bring it to pass and He delights in using us as His vessels to reach the world.