Habit Busting - Advice From Jesus in the Parable of the Empty House
Getting rid of habits or habit busting is a difficult task for almost all people.
Jesus gives us some advice on breaking a habit in one of his parables which is sometimes called the parable of the empty house (Mat 12: 43-45, Luke 11: 24-26).
A parable is a story normally about something quite common with another hidden meaning between the lines.
In the parable of the empty house we find a man with an unclean spirit which goes out of him.
He goes back home and finds it clean and orderly but empty, then he takes seven other spirits even more wicked and lives there, and the last state is even worse than the first.
I don't believe that Jesus Christ believes in ghosts and haunted houses, but he did use the vernacular of the day.
In those times an evil or unclean spirit was a way of describing a mental disorder.
Even today we use similar terminology.
A person with an angry spirit is someone who is difficult to get on with; always arguing about something, while someone with a loving spirit is a nice and caring person.
The main message of the parable is directed "this wicked generation" or the Jewish race of his time, but there is a secondary message of a more personal nature.
The house is like your mind.
You have a bad habit and you make a concerted effort to stop the habit, but don't replace it with something else.
That leaves a vacuum in your life and vacuums yearn to be filled and normally are and if you don't choose something good to fill it with, then something not so good almost certainly will.
For example, let's say you have been somewhat discontent with your life and have been over eating fattening take away food to compensate and put on too much weight.
What are you now going to do? You could go on a starvation diet, say one small meal per day.
You might last a couple of days and then go on a fat food binge and put on even more weight - the vacuum had to be filled.
A better solution would be to eat three good meals per day of good nutritious food and look for interesting and fulfilling activities to fill up your day.
Look for things that make you happy and give meaning to your life and who you really are so you won't continue to look for unhealthy distractions.
Fill up the vacuum with good things and you will lead a happier life.
Jesus gives us some advice on breaking a habit in one of his parables which is sometimes called the parable of the empty house (Mat 12: 43-45, Luke 11: 24-26).
A parable is a story normally about something quite common with another hidden meaning between the lines.
In the parable of the empty house we find a man with an unclean spirit which goes out of him.
He goes back home and finds it clean and orderly but empty, then he takes seven other spirits even more wicked and lives there, and the last state is even worse than the first.
I don't believe that Jesus Christ believes in ghosts and haunted houses, but he did use the vernacular of the day.
In those times an evil or unclean spirit was a way of describing a mental disorder.
Even today we use similar terminology.
A person with an angry spirit is someone who is difficult to get on with; always arguing about something, while someone with a loving spirit is a nice and caring person.
The main message of the parable is directed "this wicked generation" or the Jewish race of his time, but there is a secondary message of a more personal nature.
The house is like your mind.
You have a bad habit and you make a concerted effort to stop the habit, but don't replace it with something else.
That leaves a vacuum in your life and vacuums yearn to be filled and normally are and if you don't choose something good to fill it with, then something not so good almost certainly will.
For example, let's say you have been somewhat discontent with your life and have been over eating fattening take away food to compensate and put on too much weight.
What are you now going to do? You could go on a starvation diet, say one small meal per day.
You might last a couple of days and then go on a fat food binge and put on even more weight - the vacuum had to be filled.
A better solution would be to eat three good meals per day of good nutritious food and look for interesting and fulfilling activities to fill up your day.
Look for things that make you happy and give meaning to your life and who you really are so you won't continue to look for unhealthy distractions.
Fill up the vacuum with good things and you will lead a happier life.
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