You love God. You pray. And you serve well. But there’s this one habit you can’t seem to break, and you’ve been searching everywhere for how to break a bad habit and become the true Christian you’re supposed to be?
Several times, you’ve promised yourself – and God – that you’d stop. But here you are. Caught in a cycle that leaves you feeling guilty, frustrated, and spiritually stuck.
It may be something seemingly insignificant like gossip, procrastination, social media overuse, or emotional eating. Or it could be as severe as pornography, lying, overspending, or a toxic relationship that keeps pulling you away from God.
Whatever the habit you’re trying to break, it’s left you feeling two things: convicted and confused. You keep asking, “Why can’t I stop, even though I know it’s wrong?”
The truth?
Christians struggle with bad habits too. Not because we don’t love God, but because spiritual growth is a process and strongholds don’t break with willpower alone. They break with truth, transformation, and grace.
God doesn’t just want your behavior to change. He wants to renew your mind and heal the heart behind the habit.
In this blog, we’re not just going to talk about how to break a bad habit as a Christian. We’ll talk about how to allow God help you discover the root, set spiritual boundaries, and walk in lasting freedom. These aren’t tips from a self-help book. They’re truth from Scripture and steps you can take, starting now.
If you’re tired of the cycle and ready to be free, keep reading. There’s grace here—and there’s hope for your transformation.
The Weight of Bad Habits
That you do have bad habits or patterns you’re dealing with does not invalidate your salvation. Your salvation came as a result of what God did through Christ, not what you can get right.
However, salvation is only the means to an end. It is only the entrance to the life of eternal impact God has called us to. Read this blog to understand why God saved us.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
II Corinthians 5:17
This new creation is your spirit. As a Christian, you receive a new spirit, a new nature that is aligned with God’s nature.
But this regeneration only happens instantly in your Spirit. Your soul and body need to be deliberately brought under the power of salvation by YOU.
This process of change is necessary because for you to fully achieve the reason God saved us, your soul and body need to be in agreement with your spirit.
To achieve God’s purpose, you need to be in an intimate and effective relationship with Him. And you cannot enjoy the fullness of that relationship when you keep dealing with the guilt and frustration of having bad habits.
In addition to the spiritual implications of having a bad habit, you will agree with me that it’s also taking a toll on your physical, mental, social, or emotional health.
The longer you keep up with that habit, the more havoc you cause your health. So, why not let them go?
How You Can Break a Bad Habit as a Christian
Please note that all the steps below are in addition to praying against that bad habit and drawing from the strength God supplies.
Be Transformed by Your New Identity, Not New Effort
…you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:24
Bad habits are usually rooted in your old identity. So, to break a bad habit as a Christian, you’ll need to truly put on your new identity.
What’s your identity, and who have you become in as a Christian?
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
II Corinthians 5:21
You have become God’s righteousness, and as such, it is an anomaly to continue in habits that contradict who you are.
But then, putting on this new identity goes beyond having a knowledge of it. To put on your new identity, you will need to let it transform you from the inside out. This is why we are required to renew our minds.
When you renew your mind, you are rewiring your brain and subconscious away from what your old identity was used to, to who your new identity makes you.
Spend ample time reading the scriptures and meditating on who God has made you. Declare who you are all the time, until the reality sinks in your subconscious.
You can start with the following scriptures:
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
- Ephesians 2:10 – For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
- Romans 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
- 1 Peter 2:9 – But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
- Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
- Colossians 3:3 – For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
- John 1:12 – Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
- Philippians 3:20 – But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 – Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit… You are not your own; you were bought at a price…”
- Romans 8:37 – No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
When the reality of your new identity sits in, you start to produce fruit aligned with that identity, and you will find that the desire to continue in that bad habit dies.
Let God Name What You’ve Been Numbing
You may believe you’re simply dealing with an external habit that needs to be stopped. But honestly, habits don’t exist on their own. They can’t.
For every habit, whether good or bad, there’s always a root cause and a sustaining factor. Sometimes, the root cause and the sustaining factor are usually the same thing. Other times, they are two different things.
You may be using a habit to escape emotions you never learned how to name and deal with. Other times, those habits may be rooted in deep childhood wounds, fear, stress, and rejection. Bad habits may also be coping or protection mechanisms you developed over the years.
You may be gossiping to mask your low self-esteem or emotional insecurity. Your addiction to excess food may be a self-soothing mechanism. And your oversharing habit may be your way of making yourself feel seen by others.
But hey, the Holy Spirit is not just a Comforter, He’s a Revealer. Why not let God, through His Word, shine light on that habit and reveal its root cause so you can deal with it once and for all?
Set Boundaries and Practical Guards
When you’ve dealt with the root cause of that bad habit, the next thing you want to do is to remove its sustaining factors.
The truth is that faith isn’t against discipline. And sometimes, you cannot simply pray away bad habits. If you truly want to break a bad habit as a Christian, you cannot overlook the physical and psychological aspects of habit formation.
So, what are the things triggering and keeping you in that loop? Could your regular supply of junk food be the reason you can’t stop overeating?
Could your staying up past bedtime be the reason you can’t stop watching pornography? Or maybe you fail to manage your time properly and you keep having room for gossip and ungodly conversations?
Find out what those sustaining factors are and get rid of them. Use as many tools as you can to keep yourself accountable. If you’re open to be vulnerable, let trusted people help you destroy those sustaining factors.
Starve the Cycle, But Feed the Void
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.
Matthew 12:43-45
Don’t just stop at removing the habit. You have to replace it. Simply removing the sustaining factors of a bad habit without replacing with a good one can cause you to relapse.
If you don’t fill the spiritual and emotional vacuum that is created when you break a bad habit, the habit will return in another form.
You know why?
Read the scripture for this section again. Also, your brain will need to shift resources into building and strengthening another neural pathway (for the good habit) to totally starve off the old pathway.
So, instead of simply leaving your refrigerator empty to fight overeating, stock it with healthy meals in appropriate proportions. Instead of simply avoiding pornography those times when you’re alone, keep your mind busy by studying the Bible or reading a good book.
Be Patient with the Process
You probably built that habit over a period of a few years or months. Please don’t expect to break it after a few days of following this advice. That will be too much stress on your wellbeing.
Instead, focus on making the efforts you’re putting to break that bad habit a daily or regular routine.
With time, you’ll begin to see the changes. You’ll begin to see your body and soul conform to the new, spotless spirit you received when you became a child of God.
Conclusion
Your habit doesn’t define you. Neither does it make you any less of who God has called you. In Christ, you have been set free. So, stay free.
Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight one truth from this post in your spirit, and begin to apply it. You’ll see how much God has provided for you to be able to break a bad habit as a Christian.
