Habits: Our Super Strength

A New Commentary Application of Psalm 1.

Habit is the deepest law. It is our supreme strength, if also in certain circumstances, our most miserable weakness…(Habits) are the source of all working and all apprenticeship, of all practice and all learning in the world. -Thomas Carlyle

There’s a lot of emphasis on goal setting in popular business books and self-help schemes. Goals are helpful. But I’ve found that long-term effectiveness is much more about habits than goals. As Robert E. Speer says, “There is a real sense in which our business here is simply the acquisition of habits.”

The key question, then, for makinggoodhappen in 2026 is which habits will makegoodhappen in our lives, our relationships, and our community?

Let’s say that you are looking at the Amazon.com best-sellers list. You find a book with more than a billion reviews and a 4.6 combined rating. In the reviews, people write that the book, when it’s read over and over again, will guide you in your best life. The book is so good that it can empower you to shape and mold the habits needed to achieve your goals. You even have a copy on your bookshelf.

Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers. -Psalm 1:1-3

Would you take it off the shelf, dust it off, open it, and begin reading? Would you give it a serious try? Would you develop the habits you need to read it?

Let’s say you do decide to change your daily schedule to read this book. You set aside time in the morning, you open the book, and you start reading. But it isn’t what you expected. The first chapter is interesting. It seems like poetry, but you are pretty sure you are supposed to take it literally. You read further. The stories are strange and fantastic. People make bad decisions. Everything unwinds. It is confusing. It’s uncomfortable. It’s inconvenient. It doesn’t have any bullet point applications or summaries. People even argue over the best way to live out what it says. But you keep trying. After all, you committed to read it. But it just gets worse.

You’ve probably guessed that we are talking about the Bible. It may not have a billion reviews, but it really is the best-selling book of all time. It is not, however, easy to read. It takes work to make Bible reading a daily and fruitful habit. What helps us to build this habit?

• You could turn to Bible commentaries, but they are hard to find, they’re too technical, and they tend to offer the opinions of one scholar over another.

• There are plenty of people teaching and preaching the Bible but they tend to spoon-feed it to us rather than equipping us to read it and apply it for ourselves.

• There is another option: subscribe to Makegoodhappen with Randy Lovejoy.

MakeGoodHappen will feature the following in 2026 to help you develop the following habits:

• Setting goals and habits in every stage of life.

• Learning how to read Scripture and integrate it into our everyday lives through:

  • Posts on the book of Isaiah, how to read it, and how to apply it to our lives. Why Isaiah? Because it is, after the Psalms, the most quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament.

• Inspiration to creatively integrate faith deeper into your everyday life through:

  • posts of the first chapters of Randy’s second book, an imaginative story based upon his experiences as a pastor in Los Angeles, modeling the challenges and opportunities of being a follower of Jesus.

• Strengthening our personal prayer, including a plan for a 1/2 day in prayer.

The first level of subscription is free and includes all of the above. For additional support in your journey with Jesus, become a paid subscriber for $7.99 a month or get two months free with an annual subscription for $79.90. This will open up:

• free downloadable PDFs of key passages of the book of Isaiah that strengthen your ability to read and apply the Bible in your life.

• the opportunity to collaborate on Randy’s story of following Jesus in L.A.

• Access to a special email address for paid subscribers with a guaranteed monthly response to your questions about developing the habit of reading, understanding and applying the Scriptures to your life.

Is it really worth the effort it will take to develop the habit of reading Scripture? Yes! It will make all the difference in the world. Psalm 1 ends with the following contrast between those who wander through life without guidance from the Bible and those who successfully build that habit:

Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. -Psalm 1:4-6

Join us today!