Breaking Free from Customs

Breaking free from people’s customs reminds us not to imitate the world’s fleeting ways but to build our lives on God’s unchanging Word.

“Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity” (Jeremiah 10:2–3).

The people around us can easily impact our lives. Their customs can shape our attitudes and beliefs. We can find ourselves living their way and adopting their standards.

But God wants us to understand that we don’t have to learn “the way of the nations.” We’re not to imitate their choices, travel in their direction, or copy their habits.

If we do choose to live according to worldly ways, we can be “dismayed at the signs of the heavens,” or find ourselves shattered by world events, broken by criticism, overwhelmed by disappointments and opposition, and filled with fear. These common reactions are inevitable if we base our lives on the ways of this world.

God’s Word tells us that the customs of the peoples are “vanity.” Using the same Hebrew word, the Bible aptly describes life without God as “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity … all is vanity and a striving after wind’” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 1:14).

Today, remember that all the things of this world are like a vapor—here for brief time and then gone forever. The world’s fashions fade as quickly as they’re adopted. Its standards change from generation to generation, year to year, and even moment to moment. Nothing ever lasts.

How will you invest the time, talents, and treasures you’ve been given? What will you allow to govern your life? Remember to depend upon God and learn His ways.

Reflection Question: What customs shape your life—God’s or the world’s?