There is no point keeping our bad habits hidden. God wants to shed light on our dark spots so that we can get back to being the person He created us to be. So where do we begin?

It is important to remember to not feel shame over this process, this is a chance for us to grow and become more like Jesus as we weed these bad habits out of our lives. Shame is often what keeps us in the cycle of not being able to get rid of our dark side all together.

The first thing we need to do is to recognize the behavior or thought pattern that we want to change. What is it that we do, say or think that is not of the Lord, not the way He created us and not healthy for us to be. Like feelings of jealousy, being a resentful and angry person, lashing out at our loved ones, lack of self control…..

It is then best to repent over these things, to seek the Lords forgiveness. The enemy loves to use our faults against us, making us feel shame over the way we think and behave but the enemy will have no power over us if we have repented and been forgiven.

We need to come before God and ask Him to speak into our situation. He is waiting and willing to help us we just need to ask Him. We need to seek His wisdom and guidance, we can not go through this process on our own and He does not expect us to either. He will speak to us and He will also cover us with His love and affection and will fill us with courage and strength to get through this process.

Then we must discover what the Lord thinks about us and the qualities He actually created in us and then start to become that person. The list of bad habits that we have, the behaviors and thought patterns that we are trying to weed out of our lives will not be a part of the things that He says about us. He sees the good in us and the wonderful person that we are going to become.

Our ultimate goal is to become more like Jesus. We need to read the word to find out more about Him and what He did, to encounter Jesus and His nature for ourselves. What we feed ourselves will ultimately flow out of us. The more we read and focus on Jesus nature the more we will grow to become like Him.

Each time we start to operate in that bad habit or thought pattern we must go back and start the process again, repent, receive His forgiveness, remind ourselves who we really are and then start to behave in that way.

We are all mid process of becoming a better person. We must show grace to one another and encourage each other as we are going through this process of becoming more like the person God created us to be and to becoming more like Jesus.