Atomic Habits by James Clear is an incredible book about how to grow and become the person that you want to be.  It is a general purpose book that can be applied to anything: becoming more healthy, becoming a better parent, becoming a more effective entrepreneur, etc.

As I read the book I was thinking about how to use the tools outlined in the book to grow closer to God and to become a better disciple of Jesus.  It is from this vantage point that I offer this book review of Atomic Habits.

First off I'd like to say that while I am confident this article can help you toward the goal of improving your spiritual life, I strongly recommend that you buy a copy of the book yourself and read it.  There are far too many nuggets of wisdom in the area of aligning your behaviors and habits with who you want to be to capture in this short review.

Before we dive into the book, let's talk about one of the most important parts of life we'll apply it to.

I was recently leading a small group discussion of teenagers and asked the question of them: how do you truly love God with all of your heart, soul and mind as Jesus desires when He gives us the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:37?

Or put another way, how do you develop a deep and loving relationship with God where He becomes number one in your life?

Before we even consider God, let's think about this in the context of relationship with people.

When I was dating my wife I wanted to spend time with her.  I wanted to get to know her.  We'd go out on dates and talk on the phone.  One weekend when we were living in different cities I drove all night on a Friday just to spend the weekend with her.  It was a surprise and she was supposed to work that Saturday.  I showed up at her work that Saturday morning and it was definitely a surprise!  A couple hours later her boss let her leave work early to spend the day with me, which was awesome!

To build relationships we need to spend time together and we need to communicate!  That is how we get build relationships and get close to people.

This is easy to understand with people, and we do the same thing to build a close relationship with God.  With God however it can feel a bit different primarily because we don't see Him.  He is always present but is not visible so it feels different for us as human beings.

Wait... I thought this was a book review and not a "Relationship with God" article.  It is, but this is the context I want to frame the book within.

How do I truly draw close to God?  Well... we need to communicate with Him!  How do we do that?  Again, the answer is simple: we read the Bible (God speaking to us) and we pray (us speaking to God).

So... all we need to do is to pray and read the Bible every day and we will have a close relationship with God right?

Here is the tough question for many of us, myself included.  Do you do that?

Another related question:  On a scale of 1 to 10 how close is your relationship with God.  10 being "I can't wait to spend more time with God and I am in constant communication with Him" and a 1 being "I'm a christian but I can't remember the last time I spent some quality time with God."

Often times we can be guilty of thinking we need to do BIG things improve our relationship with God.  Like read the whole Bible in a year or become missionaries in a foreign country.  And those are great things God may call you to do one day.

But don't start by thinking so BIG that you never actually take the small steps required to actually achieve the BIG goals.

Now... let's talk about the book Atomic Habits and see what we can learn.

First James Clear points out that habits are not about having something, but are about becoming someone.

He goes on to provide a simple framework for how to build better habits.  He calls this framework the Four Laws of Behavior Change.  Whatever behavior or habit you want to create you need to:

1) Make it obvious
2) Make it attractive
3) Make it easy
4) Make it satisfying

So... who do you want to be?  What kind of person do you want to become?

I'd like to focus on this as my identity: how do I become a person that has a close intimate relationship with God and love Him with all of my heart?

What habits or consistent behaviors should I develop to become this person?

Here are a few:

Read the Bible consistently.
Pray more.
Develop more depth in my prayers.
Trust in God more in my daily life.
Serve others more to grow in love for God and man.

Now, let's look practically at how we can apply the framework from Atomic Habits to grow in these areas to become more of who we want to be.

Where do you keep your Bible?  Is it on your night stand or your desk at work where you will see it everyday or is it on a bookshelf you rarely look at?  If you read the Bible on your phone, is it on your first screen or is it hidden way on another screen you see less frequently?

It needs to be visible!

Another tool he recommends it to create an "implementation intention" in the form of:  I will [BEHAVIOR], at [TIME] in [LOCATION].  Having this plan it place removes the requirement of needing to think about what to do to improve habits.

This is a new habit I have created based on the JH Ranch encouraing me to do the exact same thing that Atomic Habits suggests:

Everyday I will read one chapter of the Bible first thing when I get to work in my office.

I also have a journal I received when I was at JH Ranch that I use to write down a verse from my reading and I ask God to show me what He wants me to focus on from that passages.  Then I write down why I think God wants me to focus on that verse and I write down a prayer asking God for help in applying it.

On the weekends I change the place but the plan stays the same.  So far I have done this 57 days in a row.  It has become a habit and one that helps me to keep drawing closer to God day by day.

Create an implementation plan and make it obvious.  Write down your what you want to do and when and where you will do it and tape it to your bathroom mirror.  Make it hard to ignore!

Let's be honest... some habits like exercise or dieting are not fun and we repeatedly fail and building consistent habits in these areas.  The same could be said about prayer or devotion time with God when we are first starting out.

So how do we make it more attractive so that we want to do these things?

One tool from the book is habit stacking.  Take something you really enjoy (an easy habit) and only allow yourself that benefit after you do the habit that is less enjoyable.  When it comes to devotion time or prayer eventually it will become what you enjoy but it may not be that way to start.

As a template he offers the following formula that I am paraphrasing:  I will [LESS ENJOYABLE HABIT] first and then afterward I will [MORE ENJOYABLE HABIT].

For example:  I will pray for five people first thing in the morning, THEN I will get a cup of coffee.

To make this obvious you could also tape a small note to the coffee pot that says, "Did you pray for five people yet this morning?"

You know that you will always want to drink a cup of coffee in the morning so why not attach that easy habit to something else you are trying to develop?

Coffee may not be the best tool as you may be cranky before you have your first cup, but you get the idea.  Use this idea to grow in your relationship with God.

You could even tie some prayer time with God in while you drink your coffee with this gem:

I will sit down in a quiet place before I take my first sip of coffee and just tell God "Thank you".  Thank you for this coffee and this quiet place I have to spend time with you.  Then take a sip of coffee and enjoy some time with the Lord!

This feels similar in some ways to making it obvious but it is a different thing.  The goal here is to remove as much friction as possible so that the habit is as easy as possible.  This is important because on some days almost any excuse will do for not following through.

To make things easy we can plan ahead.  Make sure every night before you go to bed that your Bible and journal and a pen are on the table by the chair you sit in first thing in the morning.  Not having to go look for where these items are make it easier to follow through.

If you have an early meeting or can't spend time with God at your normal time, set an alarm for a new time to remind you.

We had a family get together recently and were sitting at the table having lunch.  A friend of mine who is also my wife's cousin, Bryan Harris, was sitting next to me.  At precisely 11:30 AM the timer of his phone when off.  I happened to glance over before he could silence the alarm and noticed that his phone said "Pray #2" on it.  I doubt anyone else even noticed it and at this time Bryan didn't even act on the reminder given that he was at a family lunch that day.  We never talked about this experience but it was clear to me that he had multiple alarms set on his phone to pray at different times of the day.  Pray #1 likely happenened earlier in the day and Pray #2 was generally set for late in the morning. This is a classic way to make something easy: just set a daily reminder to do something that helps you draw closer to God.  

As a quick aside, this is the same Bryan Harris that is actually mentioned in the Atomic Habits book on page 208.  It seemed fitting to include this story above in this article!  Hey Bryan! :-) 

This is the last law of behavior change from the book and it is an important one.  But how do you make something that can be difficult to do, like making time in a busy schedule to spend time with the Lord who you can't see be satisfying like eating a Butterfinger candy bar?

This is a good question.

Let me ask another question: what benefits do you receive by having a close relationship with God?

Peace?  That is the first thing that comes to mind for me.  Knowing that I have a close relationship with God who loves me and will take care of me better than any other person possibly could gives me incredible peace.

It is hard to overstate the value of just this one benefit.  Our world today is chaotic and challenging to put it mildly, but in the Lord I have peace.  I know that my future is secure regardless of any short-term difficulties.

What else?  Love?  100%!  God is love and he put in us this capacity.  This again gives me peace.  God loves me and enables me to love both myself and others.

Power?  WOW!  This is something we could all use from time to time.  A little more power or energy to make it through live or even to see a miracle happen in our lives or the live of someone we love.  I believe God will give us this as well but only as we truly draw close to Him and He knows we will use it for His glory and not our own.  

The list of God's benefits while we are living on earth, not to mention salvation after life here is over, could take up an entire article.  They are many and I believe with all of my heart that as you build habits to draw closer to Him you will be more and more satisifed in life.

And lastly, if you are just starting out trying to really get closer to God and it feels more like work than and less satisfying than you think it should try this: ask God for help.  Ask Him to satisfy you.  Ask Him to help you with your challenges.  Ask Him for His peace.  One day soon you will be walking in a yoke with Jesus and you will have a visceral understand that it is easy and light and actually a place you can rest as you spend time with Him.

Atomic Habits is a great book and I encourage you to buy a copy and read it.  It also has some great content on breaking bad habits!

The real power in this book though that can have an eternal impact on your life is in using the tools within it to build consistent behaviors that draw you into a close and personal relationship with God.

That is where the power is!