Willpowerless

"Willpower will neer succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin."

There is nothing so challenging as the word never.  I have always been the kind that would take on the never.  In high school, we had to make a time machine.  I don't mean a Back to the Future kind, but a time keeper.  I came up with the idea of using gravity as my timepiece.  A waterfall set up with an electric pump with a tipping point for the water could produce an effective time keeper.  With the proper saline solution and a syphon tube, you could make it work without electricity.  I never got it to work right, but the theory was good.  I have often thought of conquering this 10th grade assignment as a middle-aged adult.

"Heini Arnold concludes, 'As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own will power, we will only make the evil in us stronger than ever.'" 

I can attest that (like my time keeping experiment) just because you know something can be doesn't mean that failure isn't almost certain.  The sad fact is that if we overcome sin by will we are only failing.  We may have "beat" that particular sin for the moment, but we have only set ourselves up for inevitable future failure.  When I overcome sin on my own, I become my own savior.  Unfortunately, there is no resurrection for this savior when he falls.  We cannot save ourselves.

If sin is the notion of self-reliance or destiny control or "I am my own god," then willpower is only a sinmaker.  {new word}

"'Will worship' may produce an outward show of success for a time, but in the cracks and crevices of our lives our deep inner condition will eventually be revealed."