These 10 Bad Habits Are Distancing You from God
The Danger of the Slow Drift
10 dangerous habits that slowly distance you from God. And I want you to notice that word slowly because nobody wakes up one morning and says, It’s never just one big decision. It’s tiny compromises over time. It’s a bunch of little decisions that are slow and quiet and ultimately make you drift away from him.
And that word drift right there in the original language is actually a boating term. What it basically means is it’s kind of like a boat that slips loose from its anchor. And here’s the thing about a boat that’s not anchored. It doesn’t have to do anything to drift. The current does all the work. The boat literally has to do nothing, and the boat just automatically drifts.
In some ways, this is similar to how people swim at the beach. You have your space, where you’ve put all your towels and other things, and you get into the ocean, and you’re enjoying yourself without much thought, when, 30 minutes later, you suddenly find yourself far away from all your things, but without even noticing it because you were just enjoying yourself. That’s how the current pushed you far away. All you had to do was nothing.
And this is exactly how it is with God because what does the Bible say? Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. You have to make intentional effort to draw closer to God, and if you don’t, you’re automatically, by default, going to drift away from him. Nobody drifts closer to God. The world has a current, and if you do nothing, you will drift away from God. It’s just a fact of life. There’s no cruise control in your relationship with God. If you’re not intentionally pursuing God, then you are unintentionally drifting away from him. So, I’m going to give you 10 habits in this video that cause you to drift, and these are dangerous habits that make you slowly drift from him.
The 10 Habits That Cause You to Drift
Habit Number One: Being Too Busy for God
And you already know what you’re thinking, but Mike, you don’t know my schedule. I am so busy. I have things to do. I have errands to run. I have to go to school, go to work, take care of the kids, I have practice, I have a game. There is always something to do. School is due, work to go to, look after children, practice to undertake and play a game.
You must know that people are usually very busy. However, listen to me now and let me tell you something. The thing about you is not a problem of time; the thing about you is a matter of priorities. Check your screen time. On average, an American spends 6 hours a day on their phone, so don’t tell me you don’t have time for God when you spend 6 hours on your phone every single day, man.
He cannot make you bad; he will make you busy. The thing is, you can become so busy with doing good deeds that you won’t remember to do the best thing possible, which is to spend time with God. And I am guilty of it sometimes, y’all. I am going to preach to myself a little bit because I can become so busy with filming these videos, doing good deeds for God, that I forget to spend time with God sometimes. It is kinda like the story with Mary and Martha in the Bible.
And this is why I find it interesting, because you may be doing all the good things for God and forget about spending time with him. Martha was so busy doing things for God that she missed being with God. And as I say in one of my songs, who am I to not make time for the one who made time?
Habit Number Two: Not Reading the Bible
Because here’s the truth. If you’re not in your word, you’re in your feelings. If you’re not spiritually fed, you’re going to be emotionally led. I always say the most dangerous thing a Christian can do is not read the Bible because you’re either letting the world fill your mind or you’re letting the Word fill your mind.
The world is going to fill your mind with fear, anxiety, worry, lies, temptation, and all that junk, but the Word is going to fill your mind with truth. And the more truth you fill your mind with, the less room the devil has to fill your mind with lies.
Jesus called the Bible our daily bread. Not weekly bread, not once-a-month bread, daily bread. And so, why do we do that with our soul? God commands us to always be meditating on the word of God. It’s the best thing you could fill your mind with. And when you don’t fill your mind with the word, as I said, the world is going to fill your mind with all the things, all the lies.
In fact, the Bible says we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. That means whatever you fill your mind with will literally renew your mind, and it will transform you. But notice it didn’t say you will be transformed positively or negatively because that’s up to you. If you fill your mind with the Word, you’ll be transformed positively. But if you fill your mind with the world, you’re going to be transformed negatively. And the word of God is literally God speaking to you.
Habit Number Three: Neglecting Prayer
Seven days without prayer makes one week. Do you get it? It’s a little punchline.
Think about Daniel in the Bible. They literally made a law where you couldn’t pray. And Daniel was known for praying three times a day. Like, that was his routine. He was super disciplined. And so, after Daniel hears this news, you know what he does? He went back to his room, opened his windows, and he prayed like he always did. In fact, that’s what the Bible says. He prayed like he always did. Bro literally risked his life to pray. But on our side, we are not praying because we are too occupied. Come on!
And prayer is literally how you stay connected to the source. Think about it. Like you’re probably watching this on a phone right now, and I’m willing to assume you’re going to charge that phone today because you’ll be scrolling a lot. Don’t even lie about it. And just like charging the battery of your mobile phone after depletion, the same thing can be done with your soul when depleted. Prayer is how we connect ourselves with the source. So, no prayer means no power to a Christian believer.
Habit Number Four: Dwell in the Future and Past
I group these two habits because these two things make your sufferings reside in your mind: the future and past. In other words, when you find yourself thinking a lot about the past, you forget that God forgave you already for those things. You punish yourself for things you have committed, yet those have already been taken care of by God. God isn’t remembering your past but rather your future.
And when you worry about the future, you’re basically just thinking that God is going to fail. So, dwelling on the past and worrying about the future are both literally just forgetting about God because God has already forgiven you for your past, and he’s already working out your future. You literally have nothing to dwell on, and you have nothing to worry about.
Worry and regret are the same kind of thief because they’re both robbing you of right now. And you can’t experience God in any other way than right now because what’s God’s name? Not I was, not I’m going to be, I am. And I’m here to tell you that you worry too much for someone God has never failed, and you beat yourself up too much for someone God has already forgiven. All right, hope this one helps you.
Habit Number Five: Comparing Yourself to Others
I’mma be honest with you, I still fall short with this one. And this is coming from someone who has literally 15 million followers across all platforms. And I don’t say that to brag; I say that to tell you comparison doesn’t get any easier when the numbers go up or when you finally start achieving stuff.
Comparison is a hamster wheel with no finish line. You’ll never be there. There’s no there there. The journey is the destination, and God literally made you a one-of-one. How could you possibly have competition when you’re the only one God created who could ever fulfil your assignment?
The Bible tells us repeatedly not to compare ourselves. It says comparing yourself to others is unwise, and it also says pay attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.
God has set you on your very own clock. Imagine you are going out for a ride on the bus. It operates on the fact that while approaching a bus stand, there are going to be buses reaching the station at 6:30, whereas some other buses are reaching the destination at 7:30 and some more at 8:30. Is the bus reaching at 8:30 considered a failure just because of being late than the 6:30 bus? Of course not, since each one took their time on different routes. And that’s the same way with us; God has made each of us one of a kind, giving each one of us our fingerprints so that we can make an impression on this world that none can.
Habit Number Six: Chasing Anything That’s Not God
Money, fame, success, relationships and things. And nothing wrong with these on their own. Money is not the devil. “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Not money itself is the root of all evil, but love of money. The issue here is not the having of things, but the things having of you. But this happens when you go after the gift more than the Gifter.
One time Jesus taught about how no man could serve two masters; for he would hate one and love the other. Go after all the rest and not God, and you will be nowhere, burnt out and further away from God in the end. The truth is, none of that stuff will ever satisfy your heart, regardless of how much of it you have. God said He put eternity in your heart in the Bible. That means that none of that stuff, however much of it, will ever satisfy your heart because there is only one that satisfies your heart – that is the maker of your heart.
Habit Number Seven: Not Being Around Like-Minded Believers
And I was going to say church, but I think church can be so limited nowadays to just going once a week on Sunday because I think it’s got to be more than that. I think you’ve got to be around people throughout the week, and you’ve got to have people pouring into your life, not just one time a week on Sunday where you go to church, and you don’t even really know anyone there. I mean, you really got to have people around you that build you up.
The Bible says, “Let us not neglect our assembling ourselves together, as some do, but let us stimulate one another.” Now, consider the example of the campfire. The fire will not go out during the entire night as long as the logs remain stacked on top of each other. But when the log is moved from its place, the fire will quickly go out since the fire will be disconnected from other logs.
If you take an example of a lion that is chasing gazelles, the lion will only chase them if the lion is away from the herd of gazelles. The lion will wait to see if one of the gazelles gets lost and wanders somewhere alone. This will be the gazelle he will be attacking. When you isolate yourself, it may be quite dangerous, since you should surround yourself with like-minded believers.
Imagine that you have a lot of sticks, for instance, 20, and you put them in your hands, and you want to break them with your knee. Well, it will be quite hard, and maybe you even won’t break them at all. But if you just take one of those sticks and you want to break it, then it will be really easy.
Habit Number Eight: Compromising on Little Sins
Small compromises can have great effects. This is how sin operates, my friend. Sin doesn’t appear to be really large and threatening initially. It is very sneaky, man. This is why the devil is an amazing liar because he makes sin seem so attractive.
This is pretty much fishing. You attach the bait to the hook, and the fish will bite the hook because they will only see the bait. However, when they bite it, they are cooked. They will actually get cooked and eaten up. Fish fillet, bon appétit.
It’s like a mousetrap. A mousetrap never advertises death. It only advertises cheese. And the same is true with sin. Sin never promotes itself as destruction. It only presents itself as delight. It’s just like how fire starts. A whole forest fire can start from one tiny little spark. And the really big issue with these small sins is that the more you give in to them, the more you start to think that sin is normal and the less you start to hear God’s voice.
Habit Number Nine: Ignoring Conviction
It is very common with us when we are about to commit an act; all of a sudden, there will be voices stopping us from doing what we intended to do, and we know that we are not supposed to do so, but we end up doing it regardless. In order to suppress that conviction. The more you do it, the less you allow the Holy Spirit to have control over your life because, according to Scripture, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”
Did you know you can actually make God’s Spirit sad? By ignoring that conviction, you are actually making the flesh flourish while denying the Spirit anything.
Habit Number Ten: Not Doing What God Called You to Do
And this one is super underrated. Habit number 10 is not doing what God called you to do because sin is not just doing wrong things. Sin is also not doing the right things. The Bible says it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
That is the issue that God has laid on your heart, that is the issue which God has asked you to forgive, that is the issue which God has commanded you to stop; and that is the issue that comes back into your life repeatedly and again and again from God. You have understood the issue, and you have been understanding it for quite some time now. With every moment of procrastination, you start drifting from God because procrastination is also a form of disobedience.
Let me tell you a story of the parable of talents in the Bible. Christ tells a story of a master giving his servants different amounts of talents. Thus, he hands over five talents to the first servant, two talents to the second servant, and finally one talent to the third servant. And then both the first servant and the second servant use their talents effectively.
However, on the contrary, the servant who was assigned three talents by the master keeps them buried, not gaining anything from them. What would be the response of the master when he returned after some time? The reaction of the master was that the servant was wicked and lazy.
Conclusion
And so, those are the 10 signs. If you relate to any of them, I know I sure do sometimes, man. Sometimes I’ll fall into some of these signs. So, don’t beat yourself up. Literally, these are just an invitation from God to grow even closer to him because this world is so sinful, it’s so many distractions around us that are going to try to get us to drift from God.
But God is calling you home. He’s not holding anything against you. He’s holding his arms wide open for you. And if you would be so bold, comment down below which one you struggle with the most. I’ll go first, and I’ll say dizziness is the one I struggle with the most. Being too busy for God. Which one do you struggle with out of these 10? Comment it down below. Put it out there and let’s lock in. Let’s get right with God. Can I get an amen? Amen.
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