Forcing Change with White Knuckles
It always seems to work so well the first few days. You’re stuck in a bad habit, a sinful cycle—and you want out. You do the natural thing: you excise all the junk food from the house, turn off your computer for good, or throw away your last cigarette and then you grit your teeth saying, “Enough!”
And then, a few days later, you find yourself stocking up at the grocery store, wearily turning on your computer or buying a whole carton.
Shortly thereafter you wonder what went wrong. This was supposed to be the time quitting actually worked!
This attempt at freedom from sin is referred to as “white knuckling” by the ministry Setting Captives Free. It’s the idea that we can overcome any habit through will-power alone, and it rarely if ever works. In fact, it often leads us even deeper into sin. The only true way out of our bad habits is through the Grace offered to us by Christ, by replacing the parts of our life that keep us from loving God with that Grace.
Here’s an excerpt from their article White Knuckling vs. Subdued by Grace:
Grace woos us. Grace pursues us. And then grace subdues us. And the condition of this person, who has been won by grace, is one of delighting in freedom from past sins, joyous and happy to be worshiping Christ instead of idols, and pleasant and peaceful to be around. He is not “white knuckling” anything, but rather he is enjoying his Sabbath rest in Jesus’ finished work on the cross.
Now this is not to say that there is no more battle to be fought against sin; indeed, the battle just begins when we are changed by grace. The flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that often we do not do what we want. We are truly in a battle. But now it is a battle in which we are empowered to fight by God’s grace and enabled to win by God’s Spirit. Though we stumble and falter, we now have all the resources of God Himself on our behalf: the power of His Word, the presence of His Spirit, the help of His body, even the ministry of His angels (Hebrews 1:14).
Oh what a difference there is in the life of those who are subdued by God’s grace, versus those who white-knuckle it.
Hi,
I followed the link to the article above a couple of days ago and found it broken; possibly due to Setting Captives Free’s recent site redesign. After writing in to inform them, they replied promptly with the new address of the article:
http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/resources/article/white-knuckling-vs-subdued-grace/
Thanks, SCF for the quick update! =)
Christian, thanks for catching that! I’ll make sure to fix it in the main article as well.
And yes, thanks for SCF for the quick update. They’re a stellar ministry.
As a new widow, my adult daughter and I are facing changes and this helped me to see that we do need to get rid of old bad habits and develop good productive habits like debt release. We have worked for the last year and paid off all credit card debt and cars. Now we hope to pay off the house in a couple of years and save, save, save for the future. I am blessed by having a daughter willing to pitch in with me and save our house and finances TOGETHER and praying for guidance and actually listening too. You know the old saying, “Let go and let God”. We are.