{"id":45027,"date":"2009-07-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/limits-of-human-will\/"},"modified":"2009-07-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T00:00:00","slug":"limits-of-human-will","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/limits-of-human-will\/","title":{"rendered":"The Limits of the Human Will"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many of us act as if repentance is a matter of the will. [But] we can&#39;t &quot;will&quot; ourselves into change. We can&#39;t &quot;will&quot; ourselves into feeling contrition or remorse. Repentance isn&#39;t doing something about our sin; rather it means admitting that we can&#39;t do anything about our sin. We cannot woo ourselves into anything but the most external form of repentance.<\/p>\n\n<p>All our effort, striving, and willpower have only momentary, external value when it comes to fighting an opponent as crafty, intentional, persistent, powerful, and experienced as sin. &hellip;<\/p>\n\n<p>Understand this: The <em>intention<\/em> not to sin is not the same as the <em>power<\/em> not to sin. God did not design us to conquer sin on our own. To think we can is an incalculable <em>under<\/em>valuing of sin&#39;s power combined with a huge <em>over<\/em> valuing of our own willpower!<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3463,3524,3761,3802,3945,4002,4017,4176,4180,4181,4394,4772,4805,4814,4864,4977,4978,5038,5059,5134,5265,5276,5300,5302],"tax_ctp_topics":[378],"class_list":["post-45027","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-avoiding-temptation","tax_ctp_tags-brokenness","tax_ctp_tags-dependence-on-god","tax_ctp_tags-disobedience","tax_ctp_tags-fall-of-humanity","tax_ctp_tags-foolishness","tax_ctp_tags-free-will","tax_ctp_tags-human-condition","tax_ctp_tags-human-limitations","tax_ctp_tags-human-nature","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-rebellion","tax_ctp_tags-repentance","tax_ctp_tags-resisting-temptation","tax_ctp_tags-running-from-god","tax_ctp_tags-sin","tax_ctp_tags-sin-nature","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-bondage","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-poverty","tax_ctp_tags-temptation","tax_ctp_tags-weakness","tax_ctp_tags-will","tax_ctp_tags-world","tax_ctp_tags-worldliness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Limits of the Human Will - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/limits-of-human-will\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Limits of the Human Will - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many of us act as if repentance is a matter of the will. 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