Willpower vs. Self-Control

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law.  And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”  Galatians 5:22-25 (NKJV)

But not understanding this (before I came to Christ) I thought my willpower must be sufficient, because it’s all I had to go on.  So I tried, and tried, and tried, and tried—mustering up even more willpower after every failure—for 15 years straight—but never enough to overcome the desire and sin and flesh and addiction that had slowly but very surely overcome me.  It’s interesting that we call it “willpower” when it is so evidently and ubiquitously powerless.  My “admirable” effort was evidence of me depending on myself while I lacked the trust in God necessary to help me deal with my problem.  If you had asked me then if I trusted God, I probably would have thought about it (I didn’t ever think much about that) and said yes.  But I had no idea what trusting God really meant.  I was most definitely a “self-made woman”.  I had worked hard and achieved the level of an elite competitive gymnast and valedictorian of my class, and later became a nutrition research assistant and published author in college (also working while completing a master’s degree) as well as nationally-recognized in coaching and judging gymnastics.  I had the discipline to achieve much, but in the area of eating (where my unhealed emotions were involved) it all fell apart and I seemed to have no ability to help myself! 

Of course I tried and tried to apply the same discipline to that area as had worked in all other areas, not realizing that the difference was this problem (in my case) required healing from pain.  While discipline is valuable, it does not heal pain.  My discipline was born of myself, which could only go so far, in contrast to the self-control fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is a perpetual source of power from God.  I applied a lot of discipline to my food habits with years of dieting, but my misplaced efforts only served to intensify the problem of overeating because I was trying to solve the wrong “problem” (weight) with the wrong method (my control of food, often with the rules of diets).  I needed healing (for unresolved emotional pain) which can only come from God, and I needed self-control from the Holy Spirit.  What I really needed to do was to release control in order to gain it, not continually add more control with diets which served to exacerbate deprivation-rebound overeating cycles.  I was using all the willpower I could muster, and I was fighting a losing battle.  More “control” born of myself was the exact opposite of what I needed to do—I needed to submit to God and release control (born of myself) in order to gain self-control (born of the Spirit). 

There is a world of difference between willpower and self-control.  Willpower originates from ourselves (willpower is the power of our will) whereas self-control originates from the immeasurable eternal resources of God that He imparts within us via the Holy Spirit.  There is simply no comparison!  What the law, and our willpower, is unable to accomplish the Spirit is able to do by giving us the power to obey the law.  The same Resurrection power of Jesus that overcame death is living in the believer!  Why then do we choose to use very inadequate “willpower” of ourselves (note the failure rate of diets) when we are given the power to successfully crucify the sinful nature with its passions and desires IF we live by the Spirit?  Perhaps it has to do with the alluring thought that my will is indeed adequate because willpower does actually “work” for a short time.  But God told Zerubbabel, similarly rebuilding the temple:

“. . . This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”  Zechariah 4:6 (NIV)

Nor by willpower, nor human strength, but by God’s Grace.  In fact, it goes deeper than just having the power to overcome our “problem” with food.  The Holy Spirit empowers us to live a life in submission to God.  Power to submit.  That sounds mutually incompatible, doesn’t it?  Submission sounds like a subtraction of something, simply a “letting go” of, not something we need “power” to do.  But it is the very thing we need the most power to do because it can be very difficult to submit, and surrender, ourselves.  The battle of self can be our strongest battle. 

Do you see why our relationship with God is so critical to overcoming an unhealthy relationship with food?

N.E.W. LIFE Books