NCC Daily

“I have learned to kiss the wave,” said Charles Spurgeon, “that throws me against the Rock of Ages.” Let that sink in for a second. It’s a powerful statement all by itself, but let’s be honest, it’s a lot easier said than done. Lots of waves crashing into our lives — waves of grief, waves of injustice, waves of anger, waves of pain and suffering.

Whether it’s goals or gratitude or confession, writing things down is good stewardship. Even the prophet Habakkuk said, “Write down the revelation on tablets.” Putting things in writing will help you put it into practice! One way we take things captive and make them obedient to Christ is by using the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet to capture thoughts and ideas. Once you take them captive, then you can make them obedient to Christ.

In his book, "Mr. Jones, Meet the Master," Marshall asks a thought-provoking question: "I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to read one of the Gospels until we came to a place that told us to do something, then went out to do it, and only after we had done it, began reading again?” That is so simple, yet so hard.

Scripture is our script. Here’s the bottom line: if you don’t like your life, it might be because you’re telling yourself the wrong stories. If you want to change your life, you have to change your story. How? Scripture is our script-cure.

To one degree or another, all of us are method actors. In a sense, you have to fake it until you make it. Now that almost sounds sacrilegious, and there is a fine line between hypocrisy and method acting! That said, discipleship is a form of method acting — it’s taking our cues from Jesus.

In their natural habitat, trees are buffeted by winds that blow every which way. Trees respond to that stress by growing stronger bark, by growing deeper roots. Without that kind of adversity, trees atrophy. Newsflash: humans do too! The challenge on day four is add more resistance. Why? Harder is better. We know, harder is harder. But listen — harder is better!

Pick a habit, any habit. That was the challenge on day one. The challenge on day two was this — do it for a day. Don’t worry about next week, next month, next year. Can you do it for a day? It’s day three, and we want to introduce an equation: Deliberate Practice + Desirable Difficulty = Durable Learning.

Show me your habits, and I’ll show you your future! For better or for worse, you are the sum total of your habits. Bad habits always come back to bite us. Good habits always come back to bless us. Once you identify that habit that you want to put into practice, you have to make it measurable, meaningful, and maintainable.

Almost anyone can accomplish almost anything if they work at it long enough, hard enough, and smart enough. You are capable of more than you can imagine, but the key to accomplishing your goals is reverse engineering them into daily habits.

NCC Daily began because of one simple conviction — that the ceiling on our intimacy with God and our impact on the world is dependent on our daily spiritual disciplines. None of that changes as we enter a new year. On Monday, January 4, NCC Daily will return with Pastor Mark Batterson. He releases a brand new book on December 29 entitled, Win the Day: 7 Daily Habits to Help You Stress Less & Accomplish More. We’ll spend Monday through Friday digging deeper into the seven practical, yet life-changing habits that will set you on a path to harnessing the power of twenty-four hours.