Why Small Habits Build Strong Faith | Ep. 133

Do you ever feel discouraged by slow progress or wonder if your daily habits really matter? In this episode, we talk about how small, consistent choices shape your faith over time. Anchored in Luke 13 and Genesis 12, you’ll see how God uses simple obedience to form something lasting. If you’ve been comparing your journey or waiting for a big moment, this will help you stay faithful in the small and trust what God is building.

👉 Listen to a related episode: Why the Bible Feels Hard to Understand (and Where to Begin) | Ep. 126

Transcript

Welcome And Why Reviews Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is episode 133, and I'm your host, Latoya, and this is Equip the Next, where you get equipped to lead, disciple, and move the mission forward. Do you got small habits that build strong faith? You don't want to miss this? Thank you so much. If you are new, welcome. If you are returning, thank you for coming back. I hope you have left a review. If these podcasts or this podcast has been a blessing to you, it really does help me to be able to reach more people and just, you know, teach people how to grow in God's word with confidence, you know, and to not be afraid to open up the Bible and learn and grow with one another. Listen, if you are new, feel free to check out the bonus episode on the equipped method, which is just one way that you can study your Bible. Um, it's very simple and easy and straightforward. And I definitely encourage you to check out that episode. It says bonus episode, the equipped method, or the equip method, sorry.

Small Habits Build Strong Faith

SPEAKER_00 1:38

So today we are talking about small habits and strong faith. And um, this is really um encouraging for people because I think that a lot of times people can feel like if you're comparing yourselves to others, and that's the first mistake, but we tend to feel like, well, do we not have faith, or do I not have faith because maybe things are moving small or maybe I don't see everything right away? And they can doubt. And I'm here to encourage you that um small habits, little small habits, just obeying the Lord. That's the start of it. You know, when we look at certain things, and especially in this context, we see that God often begins great things through what looks or appears to be small. He often starts that way. He's not concerned about what a person looks like. We see that um when we look at um David versus Saul, right? He's looking at the N-word. So ask yourself this question Have I dismissed small beginnings too quickly? We often do that. Small growth, I'm I'm guilty of that too. All of us are we minimize the small things, and um we sometimes it's okay to stop and to appreciate the little things, appreciate the beginnings, understand and be thankful for the small habits that, my friend, will actually strengthen your faith more than you know. So let's go. Let me get my book now. If you knew my desk situation, you would understand why I'm kind of like, yeah. So anyway, let's go trying to put my let's go to the Gospel

Mustard Seed Kingdom Growth

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of Luke. We've been in there for a while this month. Let's go to the Gospel of Luke. This is a parable, this is actually probably a parable, a twins parable, talking about the mustard seed and the leaven. I'm not gonna go into detail about the parable per se, but I will shed some application on this parable. But um I'm gonna go to Luke 13, 18 and 19. It says, He said, Therefore, what is the kingdom of God like? And to who and to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches. What is the kingdom of God like? Now a lot of people are like, huh? Some people might understand this, some people may not. Um, but we see again the seed, talking about seeds again, and the mustard seed is a very small, I think it's one of the smallest seeds, I think. But it's a very, very small seed. And I love this because we see how it grew and became a tree, a large tree that um was a place for birds to nest. And that's very important and telling because we see this small little seed that most people would overlook. That we might overlook. This is talking about those small habits. Now, in short, this parable is saying that the kingdom of God is guaranteed to come to its full, most fullest complete work or its most fullest completed state, regardless of what's going on in this world, the kingdom of God is going to flourish, and it's guaranteed to come to its fullest completed state. That is remarkable. That is how confident, that's how big the kingdom of God is. So when we look at this, we can see that you know the mustard seed here is possibly warning that no one should be put off by what appears unimpressive. I'm writing, I'm reading my notes. No one should put that off. Um, Luke, as we know, is for the is written to the overlooked. You know, it's it's it's it's it's speaking to those people who other people would look down on. And so this is beautiful to see how the kingdom of God is likened to.

Abraham And One Step Obedience

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Let's gene this now go into Genesis. Now, when we go into Genesis, I'm going to be talking about um Abraham, of course. So we're gonna go into Genesis. I'm holding one hand. Genesis 12, and I'm going to I'll do one and two. So Genesis 12, one and two. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. That is powerful because Abram or Abraham didn't do anything special to earn this blessing. It was God's grace. But we also see something very significant, and that this blessing would extend beyond Abraham's descendants to all people via the redemptive work of Christ Jesus. And it just took his obedience. It took his obedience. But it was a small little, you see how we overlook our small habits? That's why it's important to know what's feeding you. We talked about that last week in episode 132. It's important to understand what's feeding you and to not overlook the small little details. Um, there was a history uh class that I watched a long time ago, and he said, I might paraphrase this, but he said that the small, he said that the minority make history. So it's I'm sorry, and let me reverse that. It's the active minority. Sorry, the active minority are those who make history. The things that you see, the stuff that's going on, you know, as far as like back in the day, history and how history was formed and how history was made, was usually by the active minority. It wasn't by a big a bunch of people, groups, um, organizations, all kinds of stuff that happened. It was usually by the active minority. That's very, very powerful. I I'll always remember like that. That's something that really stood out to me when I heard that. Because it's true.

Everyday Small Acts That Matter

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It's the little things that we see. It's the little things that you do. You might smile at the cashier and not understand that that probably could have blessed them, man. They could have been depressed or anything, and that brought that brightened their day. You pouring into your children, you might not think it's a big thing, but it's a huge thing because it's going to shape them and grow them. Um, you calling someone and encouraging them has a greater impact than you think. Someone who is cleaning the church toilets don't understand the impact that they have. It's the small habits, it's the small things, it's the obedience that God looks at and you don't understand. You might be speaking to one person and encouraging and growing one person, pouring into one person that will change a nation. You don't know. Understanding that the kingdom grows like a seed is so powerful and important, as we see in scripture. Understanding that God builds over time. A lot of times you're things take shape and might take time because character is being developed, or maybe the time isn't right. Maybe a person's heart isn't right yet. Maybe it's not time for something to come out yet. It's God's timing, and he's always on time. Understanding that Abraham or Abram at that time began with one step of obedience, even even traveling in a direction that was not common to travel in. We talk about that in um the EFP group. That wasn't a common direction to travel in. But he trusted. See, your small habits, you know, obedience, it really does mean more than than you think. I want to pose this question Are your habits moving towards him or away from him? Talking about Christ. Are your habits moving towards him or are they moving away from him? Again, as I mentioned, you know, helping and pouring into your your child, your friend, coworker, whomever like the Lord puts in your path, or just whatever you do, a hobby or whatever, can grow to help many via through that one person, via through that one channel. We cannot overlook those things. That's why habits are so important. The habits that you are creating now will determine the outcome later. What habit habits are shaping you? What habits are moving you towards him? Fact check. Look at yourself. I look at myself on the time. I mean, listen, we all got some bad habits, and we got some good habits. As long as your bad habits aren't outweighing the good. Okay, because no one's perfect. I'm not sitting here saying that everybody has to be perfect. I hope that you understand what I'm saying. There should be a change, a shift, a growth, a process that happens naturally because Christ is in you if you believe. As we look at the Christ thread here, we look at the promise in the kingdom and how a small seed can grow to feed many.

Challenge One Obedient Step

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So I challenge you to take one small obedient step step this week. Has the Lord been nudging you to do something? And you've been putting it off? Have you wanted to um, I don't know, write a card to someone and say, hey, just thinking about you, just want to say you're doing a good job. Doesn't have to be preachy preachy. Um, there's a quote, don't quote me on this, but there is a quote that I remember. I don't know who said it, but they said that the first Bible that the that the world reads is the Christian or the believer. Okay? That's the first Bible that they read. Are you gonna get mad when somebody cuts you off in traffic? Yes. We have to calm it down, we have to count to 10, and we have to make sure we don't respond in a bad way. Okay. People crazy now. But you know what I'm saying? Like, overall, you know, the Holy Spirit will not just say, hey, you shouldn't have done that or you shouldn't. Let's let's regroup. Because people are looking at that. People are looking at that. We're not perfect, we get it wrong. I want to make sure I state that because I've had to tell people Christianity and Christian, being a Christian does not mean perfection. It does not mean that. Okay? So don't beat yourself up. The important thing that we want to do is we want to build healthy habits, and you will find that you'll have a lifestyle of good habits that are moving you forward in Christ. Love you. Well, that's it for today. Thanks for listening to the Equit the Next podcast. If this episode blessed you, I'd appreciate it if you leave a review and share it with someone who can use a little encouragement. Now grow in God's word and lead boldly.