Created to Create: Why a Hobby Matters in Your Walk with Christ

When Jesus breaks your chains of addiction and you begin a new life in Christ, you’re not just quitting a bad habit, you’re embracing a whole new way of living in Christ. Addiction once filled your time, sucked out your energy, thoughts, and emotions with a destructive focus. But now, those same areas need to be filled with something holy, healthy, and life-affirming. This is where a hobby becomes far more than a casual pastime. In Christian recovery, a hobby is a tool for healing, growth, and spiritual renewal.

A healthy hobby provides structure, purpose, and joy. It redirects attention away from temptation and toward creativity, discipline, and peace. Whether it’s baking, drawing, fixing things, learning an instrument, learning how to cook, or hiking in God’s beautiful creation, a hobby gives you a way to engage your heart and hands in a life that reflects who you’re becoming in Christ. It helps you discover new gifts or reawaken old ones that you thought you lost in the fog of addiction. It reminds you that your identity isn’t as a “former addict”. Your identity is that you are the beloved child of Yahweh God.

The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:8 (NKJV):
“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.”

A good hobby gives you a practical way to live out this verse. It pulls your thoughts into things that are noble, pure, lovely, and praiseworthy. You now have an activity you can use for Bible Scripture meditation. It replaces the cycle of shame and impulse with new cycles of thankfulness and intention. You begin to feel so much better about yourself!

Another reason a hobby is important is because it fills time that might otherwise become a battleground for the temptation of falling back into bad habits. Many people fall back into old patterns simply because they don’t know what to do with themselves. But Ephesians 5:15-16 (NKJV) exhorts us:
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Redeeming the time means using it wisely, for good. Addiction wasted time. Now, in Christ, you’re learning to use time as a gift during which you can glorify God. A hobby doesn’t have to be “religious” to be godly. Washing your car with excellence, painting something beautiful, or learning to play a worship song on guitar, mentoring someone, volunteering,, crafts, and more, are all ways to redeem the time, to use your day as an offering to the Lord Jesus.

Some people feel guilty enjoying life after addiction, like they don’t deserve peace. But God’s Word speaks directly to that shame. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) says:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

A hobby is one of the ways you step into the “new.” It’s a declaration: “I am not who I used to be. I’m building a new life with Jesus.” You’re not escaping anymore… you’re growing.

Coaching Questions for Self-Reflection & Journaling:

What kinds of hobbies or activities have ever brought you joy or peace, even briefly, in the past?

What new skill or craft might reflect the newness of life God has given you?

Have you been filling your time with what is true, noble, just, and pure? If not, what can change? (See Philippians 4:8)

In what ways have you been “redeeming the time”? Where are you still wasting it? (See Ephesians 5:15–16)

How can your hobby become a quiet place where you meet with God, give thanks, do Scripture meditation, or reflect?

Do you believe you are a new creation? If not, what’s holding you back from accepting that truth? (See 2 Corinthians 5:17)

A Christ-centered hobby doesn’t just keep your hands busy, it renews your mind. It helps rewire thought patterns back to normal and better, builds patience, and gives you space to breathe and connect with God in ways you might not have expected. You’re not trying to avoid relapse because when Jesus heals, He heals forever. You’re actively building a new life. And that new life will need tools, joy, peace, and discipline. A hobby offers all of those things and more, as you walk daily in the freedom Christ gave you.

Have a blessed rest of your day as you grow in Christ as you look for fun hobbies that you want to engage with!