April 19, 2025 • 18 mins
Discover a counterintuitive yet effective approach to breaking bad habits through removing guilt and shame rather than intensifying it. Jimmy James Johnson shares his personal journey of finally quitting smoking after 15 failed attempts using a technique he calls "Permit It to Quit It."
• Christians struggle with bad habits just like everyone else
• Traditional approaches often increase guilt and shame, creating more stress
• The "Permit It to Quit It" technique removes psychological barriers to change
• Biblical support comes from "all things are permitted, but not all things are helpful"
• The law naturally sows seeds of rebellion in human psychology
• Self-condemnation creates the emotional states that trigger bad habits
• Removing pressure and guilt can create the emotional space needed for real change
• Personal testimony of permanently quitting smoking using this approach
Try giving yourself permission to struggle while working toward positive change—you might find freedom where rigid rules have failed.
Pastor and Bible study leaders, EXPAND your online ministry.
My no-cost Not Guilty Newsletter diminishes guilt and fear.
Do your part to fuel the delivery of Christ’s forgiveness.
🙏Christ's love overcomes the guilt separating us from His boundless grace. Let's set aside our failings and take hold of His loving promises. 🙏
Guilt-free Faith serves up PEACE and POWER to Christian believers, pastors, and Bible study leaders.
🔥Videos, podcast, and Miracle Merch🔥 at GuiltFreeFaith.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Christians have bad habits, just like everyone else.
Maybe it's adultery, maybe it'slying, maybe it's violence,
smoking, drinking, pornography,overeating, selling, discord
between people, not fallingthrough on your vow to God or to
others, betraying people'strust.
What are your bad habits, whatare you supposed to do about it,
(00:22):
and what does the Bible sayabout renting yourself free from
them?
Jimmy James Johnson, guilt-freefaith going to get you feeling
better about yourself so thatyou can walk in victory today,
growing up in the church, I wasnever told that bad habits were
part of the Christian walk.
Some of them were havingaffairs.
Some of them were taking a sipof the whiskey before the
(00:45):
service.
Maybe the pastor right.
All these things were going on,but rarely were they ever
talked about.
What does it mean to be aChristian with a bad habit?
This helped me.
Let's see if it'll help you.
I'm going to take a concreteexample from my own life.
I wanted to quit smoking.
Particularly as I got into my20s.
I started to feel like man.
(01:07):
I'm really not enjoying this.
You know that smoking is notdoing you any favors, right, but
the fact remains that quittingsmoking isn't easy.
Rarely do you succeed right outof the gate.
They say that the averageperson tries quitting numerous
times before they're successful,and I personally can attest to
that.
I don't know how many times Iquit over those years, but it
(01:28):
could have definitely been 15times.
Sometimes you quit because youjust felt sick.
Sometimes you quit because youhad just heard of somebody that
had died of a smoking-relatedillness.
But regardless of what it was,it still would grab onto you and
you would find yourself in atime of weakness, stress,
depression or maybe just beingaround other people that were
(01:50):
smoking and would just break youdown.
One of the things that Idiscovered for myself was that
trying to make this hard stop ofquitting wasn't working.
It hadn't worked in the past.
I had no reason to believe thatit was going to work in the
future.
So I started experimenting withthis idea of let's remove the
restriction, the guilt, theshame of smoking and see how
(02:13):
that gives me more breathingroom.
Most Christians you talk towould never suggest oh yeah,
just give yourself more leewayto do that.
That will end up chipping awayat your addiction.
Nobody's going to say thatthey're going to hit you with
the law.
They're going to say you're notsupposed to do that or
smoking's bad for you.
There's no ifs, ands or buts.
(02:34):
So-and-so died from it.
You got to quit.
You got to quit, you got toquit.
How many times has somebodysaid that to you?
You got to quit.
This could be smoking, drugs,workaholism, infidelity, binge
eating.
It encompasses a great manythings, some of which we name
acceptable, but most of them arenot things that people proudly
(02:54):
stand up and go.
Yeah, that's what I'm into.
And similarly, people aren'tgoing to proudly stand up and
say you know what man you needto permit that until you quit
that up and say you know whatman you need to permit that
until you quit that, nobody'sgoing to stand up in church and
say, wait, I have an idea, Ihave an idea.
Instead of just praying for amiracle that they would wake up
tomorrow and not want to smoke,how about we take another
(03:16):
approach?
How about you just permit thatto quit that?
How about you permit that toquit that?
What does it mean?
It means taking off thepressure, the guilt, the shame,
the embarrassment, all thenegative self-talk, the beating
up on yourself.
It means removing all of that,just tuning that right out, and
(03:39):
you might be saying that's theopposite of where I want to go.
I'm not trying to convincemyself that this is okay, that I
want to keep on smoking.
I'm not suggesting that's whatyou're doing.
What you're actually doing isremoving some of the emotional
and psychological barriers thatare actually keeping you stuck
in that habit.
(04:00):
And this is what I mean.
You're stressed out, right, yousmoke a cigarette.
Now you're beating up onyourself, you're shaming
yourself.
You, I mean you stressed out,right, you smoke a cigarette.
Now you're beating up onyourself, you're shaming
yourself, you hate yourself.
You're a loser.
You can't stop this.
You can't stop that.
What are people going to say?
People are going to smell it onyou.
But when you start thatself-talk, that internal
dialogue, that condemnation,that guilt cycle going, all you
(04:22):
want is another cigarette.
Isn't that strange?
That actually makes you wantanother cigarette.
Why?
Because one of the triggers foryou smoking is stress, is
depression, is feeling hopeless,is despair.
So here, every time you have asetback, you beat yourself up
into a state that's sure to pushyou into another setback.
(04:46):
So that's the cycle you getinto.
I've experienced this withsmoking.
I've experienced this with food.
I call this the Jimmy JamesJohnson permit it to quit
technique, and what it means iswhat it says that we have to
permit some things to quit them.
We can't always break a cycleby guilting and beating up
(05:08):
ourselves, not allowingourselves an inch.
We can't give ourselves anygrace, we can't have a bad day,
we can't have a setback.
What I would submit to you thatI've personally experienced in
my life is how this shocking andsurprising technique can work,
and I'm actually going to tiethis into the Bible, believe it
(05:29):
or not.
So you're going to want towatch the rest of this to see
how I've got to pull off thismagic act.
Why can't we ever get somebodyto say you know what?
Maybe, just maybepsychologically, the way we're
built?
There's something to this.
I think it's a matter of thelaw, like the biblical law.
I'm going to tie this into theBible in two ways.
(05:51):
This might shake up the commentboard a little bit.
One all things are permitted tome, but not all things are good
for me.
Just think about that.
That's not a verse you expectto hear out of the Bible One of
a million times.
When it pays to read the Biblefor yourself, because you'll be
(06:12):
surprised at the things thatpeople leave out or edit or turn
into what they want it to be.
And some people will say that'swhat I'm doing and that's fine,
because that's the whole thing.
This is guilt-free faith.
If you're looking for guilt,you're in the wrong place.
We don't get down like thathere.
When I read that verse it reallystruck me.
All things are permitted to me,but not all things are helpful.
(06:35):
It's a real head-scratcherbecause you just read all
through the Old Testament aboutall these things that weren't
permitted.
Here's somebody came down withthe stone tablets.
Here are all the laws.
Here's all the atonement andsacrifices to expiate that sin,
to cleanse you and Israel ofthat sin.
And then you go into the NewTestament and you're like, oh,
(06:56):
jesus didn't sin and he came tosave us and forgive us for our
sins.
So surely there's nothing thatsays go ahead and sin and it's
just all good.
What does that verse reallymean?
I think the significance of theverse is, for me personally,
it's really not reasonable for ahuman being to expect
(07:19):
themselves to not sin, even ifit's just in their thoughts.
That's just not happening.
There's no one that you've evermet who hasn't sinned in some
way every day, in thought, indeed.
So if you accept that, then youhave to think what would the
justice be?
(07:39):
What kind of God would be like?
What kind of God would be like,oh, yeah.
So all these things that you'renaturally drawn towards, that
we're labeling sins, yeah, we'rejust going to keep condemning
you for those and Don't evendare take a break from that
guilt.
Don't take a break from thatcondemnation.
(08:00):
There are people like that.
For instance, I have OCD.
There's one theme in OCD calledscrupulosity.
It's an obsession with moralsor ethics or religious teaching.
But basically people literallygo through their day constantly
analyzing their thoughts, whatthey're looking at, what they're
(08:21):
planning, what their urges are,and they're monitoring this
Throughout the day.
That's a sin.
See, I'm a sinner, I'm this,I'm that.
It's lust, it's greed, I'm justsome type of weak addict.
I'm just a piece of junk.
I don't see how that's reallygoing to be helpful.
You may know people, you mayhave grown up with people, you
(08:44):
may have been to Catholic schoolwith people who try to convince
you that all these things aresins and that you're born this
sinner, carrying this burdenwith you and you need to feel
guilty, slogging along carryingthis crappy version of yourself
and I want to disagree with thatbecause one I don't think
(09:06):
that's healthy If you thinkabout yourself as just a
low-down, dirty sinner, thenyou're not going to be feeling
good.
If you're looking for Jesus tolift you up in victory, or you
come out of the church feelingstrong, at the same time you've
convinced yourself that you're atotal piece of crap.
(09:26):
That's not going to happen.
You can't tell yourself you'recrap and that you're redeemed
and wonderful all at the sametime.
All at the same time.
I think that's one of thereasons why people have trouble
in the Christian church, becausethey're like I don't understand
how these two things can betrue at the same time.
That's a lot of mentalgymnastics for me.
(09:48):
And when Christ was saying,come to me as a child, come to
me in that type of simplicity,there's nothing simple about
that crazy bit of twisting andturning on yourself.
If God loves you, then surelyHis plan for you isn't for you
to walk around feeling like crapevery day.
(10:11):
We're supposed to be focused onthe cross, right.
We're supposed to be focused onredemption and victory and love
.
We can't do that at the sametime.
We're focused on our failingsand flaws and sins.
Similarly, with these bad habitsgoing back to smoking, it's
really hard to give up a habitthat's triggered by your
(10:34):
emotional state, your stress,the cortisol, all that stuff,
while at the same time you'recreating that very state in
yourself.
You're adding to your stress,you're adding to your cortisol
and your adrenaline.
You're not eating well and notsleeping right.
So, yes, you're going to keeprelapsing because you have no
(10:55):
reservoir of wellness that'sgoing to give you the fuel to
free you from wanting that.
Because if you're going to tryto white-knuckle it, some people
think that's the way to breakaddictions.
Maybe sometimes that is the way.
This isn't meant to be like aone-size-fits-all for everything
, at all times, forever.
This is an unconventionaltechnique that I myself have
(11:17):
used.
And here are the two biblicaltie-ins.
One, all things are permittedto me, but not all things are
helpful.
Now, that sounds like areasonable verse, isn't it?
Quite?
Literally, everything ispermitted, because nobody can
stop you from just going anddoing whatever it is you want to
do.
(11:37):
And secondly, I think we canall agree that not everything we
can do is necessarily helpfulor good for us.
We could go out and get introuble.
I could go out and eat somefast food.
My body's not going toappreciate that.
I could take up smoking againmy body's not going to
appreciate that.
These things are not againstthe law.
(11:58):
Nobody can stop me.
But they're not good for me.
They're not helpful to me.
I'm ultimately not going to befeeling better having done them
To me.
That's a much morecompassionate and realistic
approach to Christianity.
That's the first verse.
Second, there is a verse thattalks about how the law sows the
(12:21):
seed of rebellion.
I'll have to put it intodescription, but here's the
thing.
It sounds strange, but we'veall seen this.
What's the first thing a kiddoes when you tell them they
can't do something Exactly whatyou just told them they couldn't
do?
It's rebellion.
Some adults are also veryobvious in this regard, but I
(12:41):
think that's the whole point.
Right Is that?
Whether we're talking aboutchildren, whether we're talking
about adults, there's somethingabout the human psyche that
doesn't like being told what todo.
We don't like someone puttingtheir foot down on something we
want or desire.
We don't want someone opposingour will.
(13:03):
When somebody tries to lay downthe law on us whether that's
what time we're supposed to goto bed tonight because we're a
kid, or why we're supposed tostay faithful in a committed
relationship those things sowthe seeds of rebellion.
There's that little, thatpulling that jolt, wait, whoa?
(13:24):
No I, I want to do somethingdifferent from that.
I have a better plan.
I know better.
I'm free to do what I want.
You can see the truth in thatverse.
Yes, the law actually createsrebellion.
Now that could go down a wholerabbit hole, because then it'd
be like why would God then makethe law?
(13:45):
Because then he would haveknown that people would have
broken it.
This video isn't going to coverall those things, but let's just
agree that the law sows theseeds of rebellion in your heart
.
So think about this, like inthe smoking example as soon as
you're trying to hammer yourself, trying to put your foot down
(14:07):
on yourself I'm never smoking, Ihate smoke, I'm never going to
smoke again You're just plantingthat seed, that rebellion, that
psychological pushback.
It's just meeting you, howeverhard you're pushing the law on
yourself, you're pushing down onyourself with the law and with
(14:27):
guilt and with shame, and it'sjust pushing right back.
I got to do this, or I feellike doing this, or I had a bad
day, or what difference does iteven make?
There's that constant tension,all that torquing going on, all
those emotions.
That's not getting you anycloser to the emotional freedom
(14:48):
that you may need to actuallyquit smoking.
There's an irony there bydeclaring something bad, we can
get ourselves into troublewithout knowing it, particularly
if we haven't considered thisaspect of human psychology and
we haven't read those parts ofthe Bible.
Haven't you ever told somebodyto quit smoking?
(15:09):
And it seemed like they'redigging in even deeper.
You keep telling them andthey're just digging in.
It's not because they're a badperson.
It's not because they're savedor not saved, or there's a
generational curse on them orsomething like that.
No, it's because, for whateverreason, god told us that the way
(15:30):
that we're constructed is, wewill rebel when the law is
pushed on us.
Does it make a little bit moresense now?
Remove the law, remove theguilt, the shame, the pressure
from yourself.
Let me tell you what happenedwith me.
Let me tell you what happenedwith me Once I removed that dire
(15:52):
battle over smoking is bad andoh, it's going to kill you
tomorrow and oh, nobody can quitand oh, why don't you have the
willpower?
Once I started dropping that, Istarted to feel a lot more
relaxed.
The tension started coming outof me.
I started accepting and lovingmyself more, and with that came
(16:19):
less stress, I was eating better, I started exercising more.
I made a decision that I wasn'tgoing to hate myself for,
whatever my habits, myweaknesses, I still knew it
wasn't good.
In fact, the reason why I'mtelling you about this permitted
to quit it approach is becauseit worked, and that's when I
(16:43):
coined the approach.
I was like yo, I'm going topermit it to quit it, I'm going
to smoke these cigarettes, I'mgoing to enjoy myself, I'm going
to permit it to quit it, I'mgoing to smoke these cigarettes,
I'm going to enjoy myself, I'mgoing to have a good time with
it, and it's going to peter out.
I've tried the other ways.
I've tried hypnosis.
I've tried cold turkey.
What do I have to lose?
That's what I did.
I permitted it to quit it and Iquit it.
(17:05):
After that period of time whenI took that philosophy and
coined this phrase that I'msharing with you, I've never had
a cigarette since then.
I quit smoking and never evenhad a craving for it again.
Is that a technique you coulduse?
Would you like to unravel thesebad habits you can't seem to
(17:28):
get rid of?
Maybe it's time to consideranother approach.
Some people hate me for sayingit, but with a little knowledge
of the Bible and a little bit ofcreativity and some critical
thinking.
I think the Bible does leaveyou some groundwork for this.
I believe there is somestructure here.
I don't think this is a nuttyidea.
(17:49):
There are bad habits that arehurting you or they're hurting
other people and, practicallyspeaking, if you need it to end,
you need to be like pulling onto whatever life vest you can
find After you've tried to gocold turkey and failed.
You know you tried this othertime and then people found out
(18:10):
and they hated on you and talkedabout you and talked down to
you, and then you hated onyourself and talked down on
yourself.
As soon as you're done with allthose things, maybe give
permitted acquitted a try.
I'm not a psychologist.
This isn't medical advice.
This is just something JimmyJames Johnson invented for
(18:31):
myself and perhaps it saved mylife and it could do the same
for you.
Christians have bad habits, just like everyone else.
Maybe it's adultery, maybe it'slying, maybe it's violence,
smoking, drinking, pornography,overeating, selling, discord
between people, not fallingthrough on your vow to God or to
others, betraying people'strust.
What are your bad habits, whatare you supposed to do about it,
(00:22):
and what does the Bible sayabout renting yourself free from
them?
Jimmy James Johnson, guilt-freefaith going to get you feeling
better about yourself so thatyou can walk in victory today,
growing up in the church, I wasnever told that bad habits were
part of the Christian walk.
Some of them were havingaffairs.
Some of them were taking a sipof the whiskey before the
(00:45):
service.
Maybe the pastor right.
All these things were going on,but rarely were they ever
talked about.
What does it mean to be aChristian with a bad habit?
This helped me.
Let's see if it'll help you.
I'm going to take a concreteexample from my own life.
I wanted to quit smoking.
Particularly as I got into my20s.
I started to feel like man.
(01:07):
I'm really not enjoying this.
You know that smoking is notdoing you any favors, right, but
the fact remains that quittingsmoking isn't easy.
Rarely do you succeed right outof the gate.
They say that the averageperson tries quitting numerous
times before they're successful,and I personally can attest to
that.
I don't know how many times Iquit over those years, but it
(01:28):
could have definitely been 15times.
Sometimes you quit because youjust felt sick.
Sometimes you quit because youhad just heard of somebody that
had died of a smoking-relatedillness.
But regardless of what it was,it still would grab onto you and
you would find yourself in atime of weakness, stress,
depression or maybe just beingaround other people that were
(01:50):
smoking and would just break youdown.
One of the things that Idiscovered for myself was that
trying to make this hard stop ofquitting wasn't working.
It hadn't worked in the past.
I had no reason to believe thatit was going to work in the
future.
So I started experimenting withthis idea of let's remove the
restriction, the guilt, theshame of smoking and see how
(02:13):
that gives me more breathingroom.
Most Christians you talk towould never suggest oh yeah,
just give yourself more leewayto do that.
That will end up chipping awayat your addiction.
Nobody's going to say thatthey're going to hit you with
the law.
They're going to say you're notsupposed to do that or
smoking's bad for you.
There's no ifs, ands or buts.
(02:34):
So-and-so died from it.
You got to quit.
You got to quit, you got toquit.
How many times has somebodysaid that to you?
You got to quit.
This could be smoking, drugs,workaholism, infidelity, binge
eating.
It encompasses a great manythings, some of which we name
acceptable, but most of them arenot things that people proudly
(02:54):
stand up and go.
Yeah, that's what I'm into.
And similarly, people aren'tgoing to proudly stand up and
say you know what man you needto permit that until you quit
that up and say you know whatman you need to permit that
until you quit that, nobody'sgoing to stand up in church and
say, wait, I have an idea, Ihave an idea.
Instead of just praying for amiracle that they would wake up
tomorrow and not want to smoke,how about we take another
(03:16):
approach?
How about you just permit thatto quit that?
How about you permit that toquit that?
What does it mean?
It means taking off thepressure, the guilt, the shame,
the embarrassment, all thenegative self-talk, the beating
up on yourself.
It means removing all of that,just tuning that right out, and
(03:39):
you might be saying that's theopposite of where I want to go.
I'm not trying to convincemyself that this is okay, that I
want to keep on smoking.
I'm not suggesting that's whatyou're doing.
What you're actually doing isremoving some of the emotional
and psychological barriers thatare actually keeping you stuck
in that habit.
(04:00):
And this is what I mean.
You're stressed out, right, yousmoke a cigarette.
Now you're beating up onyourself, you're shaming
yourself.
You, I mean you stressed out,right, you smoke a cigarette.
Now you're beating up onyourself, you're shaming
yourself, you hate yourself.
You're a loser.
You can't stop this.
You can't stop that.
What are people going to say?
People are going to smell it onyou.
But when you start thatself-talk, that internal
dialogue, that condemnation,that guilt cycle going, all you
(04:22):
want is another cigarette.
Isn't that strange?
That actually makes you wantanother cigarette.
Why?
Because one of the triggers foryou smoking is stress, is
depression, is feeling hopeless,is despair.
So here, every time you have asetback, you beat yourself up
into a state that's sure to pushyou into another setback.
(04:46):
So that's the cycle you getinto.
I've experienced this withsmoking.
I've experienced this with food.
I call this the Jimmy JamesJohnson permit it to quit
technique, and what it means iswhat it says that we have to
permit some things to quit them.
We can't always break a cycleby guilting and beating up
(05:08):
ourselves, not allowingourselves an inch.
We can't give ourselves anygrace, we can't have a bad day,
we can't have a setback.
What I would submit to you thatI've personally experienced in
my life is how this shocking andsurprising technique can work,
and I'm actually going to tiethis into the Bible, believe it
(05:29):
or not.
So you're going to want towatch the rest of this to see
how I've got to pull off thismagic act.
Why can't we ever get somebodyto say you know what?
Maybe, just maybepsychologically, the way we're
built?
There's something to this.
I think it's a matter of thelaw, like the biblical law.
I'm going to tie this into theBible in two ways.
(05:51):
This might shake up the commentboard a little bit.
One all things are permitted tome, but not all things are good
for me.
Just think about that.
That's not a verse you expectto hear out of the Bible One of
a million times.
When it pays to read the Biblefor yourself, because you'll be
(06:12):
surprised at the things thatpeople leave out or edit or turn
into what they want it to be.
And some people will say that'swhat I'm doing and that's fine,
because that's the whole thing.
This is guilt-free faith.
If you're looking for guilt,you're in the wrong place.
We don't get down like thathere.
When I read that verse it reallystruck me.
All things are permitted to me,but not all things are helpful.
(06:35):
It's a real head-scratcherbecause you just read all
through the Old Testament aboutall these things that weren't
permitted.
Here's somebody came down withthe stone tablets.
Here are all the laws.
Here's all the atonement andsacrifices to expiate that sin,
to cleanse you and Israel ofthat sin.
And then you go into the NewTestament and you're like, oh,
(06:56):
jesus didn't sin and he came tosave us and forgive us for our
sins.
So surely there's nothing thatsays go ahead and sin and it's
just all good.
What does that verse reallymean?
I think the significance of theverse is, for me personally,
it's really not reasonable for ahuman being to expect
(07:19):
themselves to not sin, even ifit's just in their thoughts.
That's just not happening.
There's no one that you've evermet who hasn't sinned in some
way every day, in thought, indeed.
So if you accept that, then youhave to think what would the
justice be?
(07:39):
What kind of God would be like?
What kind of God would be like,oh, yeah.
So all these things that you'renaturally drawn towards, that
we're labeling sins, yeah, we'rejust going to keep condemning
you for those and Don't evendare take a break from that
guilt.
Don't take a break from thatcondemnation.
(08:00):
There are people like that.
For instance, I have OCD.
There's one theme in OCD calledscrupulosity.
It's an obsession with moralsor ethics or religious teaching.
But basically people literallygo through their day constantly
analyzing their thoughts, whatthey're looking at, what they're
(08:21):
planning, what their urges are,and they're monitoring this
Throughout the day.
That's a sin.
See, I'm a sinner, I'm this,I'm that.
It's lust, it's greed, I'm justsome type of weak addict.
I'm just a piece of junk.
I don't see how that's reallygoing to be helpful.
You may know people, you mayhave grown up with people, you
(08:44):
may have been to Catholic schoolwith people who try to convince
you that all these things aresins and that you're born this
sinner, carrying this burdenwith you and you need to feel
guilty, slogging along carryingthis crappy version of yourself
and I want to disagree with thatbecause one I don't think
(09:06):
that's healthy If you thinkabout yourself as just a
low-down, dirty sinner, thenyou're not going to be feeling
good.
If you're looking for Jesus tolift you up in victory, or you
come out of the church feelingstrong, at the same time you've
convinced yourself that you're atotal piece of crap.
(09:26):
That's not going to happen.
You can't tell yourself you'recrap and that you're redeemed
and wonderful all at the sametime.
All at the same time.
I think that's one of thereasons why people have trouble
in the Christian church, becausethey're like I don't understand
how these two things can betrue at the same time.
That's a lot of mentalgymnastics for me.
(09:48):
And when Christ was saying,come to me as a child, come to
me in that type of simplicity,there's nothing simple about
that crazy bit of twisting andturning on yourself.
If God loves you, then surelyHis plan for you isn't for you
to walk around feeling like crapevery day.
(10:11):
We're supposed to be focused onthe cross, right.
We're supposed to be focused onredemption and victory and love
.
We can't do that at the sametime.
We're focused on our failingsand flaws and sins.
Similarly, with these bad habitsgoing back to smoking, it's
really hard to give up a habitthat's triggered by your
(10:34):
emotional state, your stress,the cortisol, all that stuff,
while at the same time you'recreating that very state in
yourself.
You're adding to your stress,you're adding to your cortisol
and your adrenaline.
You're not eating well and notsleeping right.
So, yes, you're going to keeprelapsing because you have no
(10:55):
reservoir of wellness that'sgoing to give you the fuel to
free you from wanting that.
Because if you're going to tryto white-knuckle it, some people
think that's the way to breakaddictions.
Maybe sometimes that is the way.
This isn't meant to be like aone-size-fits-all for everything
, at all times, forever.
This is an unconventionaltechnique that I myself have
(11:17):
used.
And here are the two biblicaltie-ins.
One, all things are permittedto me, but not all things are
helpful.
Now, that sounds like areasonable verse, isn't it?
Quite?
Literally, everything ispermitted, because nobody can
stop you from just going anddoing whatever it is you want to
do.
(11:37):
And secondly, I think we canall agree that not everything we
can do is necessarily helpfulor good for us.
We could go out and get introuble.
I could go out and eat somefast food.
My body's not going toappreciate that.
I could take up smoking againmy body's not going to
appreciate that.
These things are not againstthe law.
(11:58):
Nobody can stop me.
But they're not good for me.
They're not helpful to me.
I'm ultimately not going to befeeling better having done them
To me.
That's a much morecompassionate and realistic
approach to Christianity.
That's the first verse.
Second, there is a verse thattalks about how the law sows the
(12:21):
seed of rebellion.
I'll have to put it intodescription, but here's the
thing.
It sounds strange, but we'veall seen this.
What's the first thing a kiddoes when you tell them they
can't do something Exactly whatyou just told them they couldn't
do?
It's rebellion.
Some adults are also veryobvious in this regard, but I
(12:41):
think that's the whole point.
Right Is that?
Whether we're talking aboutchildren, whether we're talking
about adults, there's somethingabout the human psyche that
doesn't like being told what todo.
We don't like someone puttingtheir foot down on something we
want or desire.
We don't want someone opposingour will.
(13:03):
When somebody tries to lay downthe law on us whether that's
what time we're supposed to goto bed tonight because we're a
kid, or why we're supposed tostay faithful in a committed
relationship those things sowthe seeds of rebellion.
There's that little, thatpulling that jolt, wait, whoa?
(13:24):
No I, I want to do somethingdifferent from that.
I have a better plan.
I know better.
I'm free to do what I want.
You can see the truth in thatverse.
Yes, the law actually createsrebellion.
Now that could go down a wholerabbit hole, because then it'd
be like why would God then makethe law?
(13:45):
Because then he would haveknown that people would have
broken it.
This video isn't going to coverall those things, but let's just
agree that the law sows theseeds of rebellion in your heart
.
So think about this, like inthe smoking example as soon as
you're trying to hammer yourself, trying to put your foot down
(14:07):
on yourself I'm never smoking, Ihate smoke, I'm never going to
smoke again You're just plantingthat seed, that rebellion, that
psychological pushback.
It's just meeting you, howeverhard you're pushing the law on
yourself, you're pushing down onyourself with the law and with
(14:27):
guilt and with shame, and it'sjust pushing right back.
I got to do this, or I feellike doing this, or I had a bad
day, or what difference does iteven make?
There's that constant tension,all that torquing going on, all
those emotions.
That's not getting you anycloser to the emotional freedom
(14:48):
that you may need to actuallyquit smoking.
There's an irony there bydeclaring something bad, we can
get ourselves into troublewithout knowing it, particularly
if we haven't considered thisaspect of human psychology and
we haven't read those parts ofthe Bible.
Haven't you ever told somebodyto quit smoking?
(15:09):
And it seemed like they'redigging in even deeper.
You keep telling them andthey're just digging in.
It's not because they're a badperson.
It's not because they're savedor not saved, or there's a
generational curse on them orsomething like that.
No, it's because, for whateverreason, god told us that the way
(15:30):
that we're constructed is, wewill rebel when the law is
pushed on us.
Does it make a little bit moresense now?
Remove the law, remove theguilt, the shame, the pressure
from yourself.
Let me tell you what happenedwith me.
Let me tell you what happenedwith me Once I removed that dire
(15:52):
battle over smoking is bad andoh, it's going to kill you
tomorrow and oh, nobody can quitand oh, why don't you have the
willpower?
Once I started dropping that, Istarted to feel a lot more
relaxed.
The tension started coming outof me.
I started accepting and lovingmyself more, and with that came
(16:19):
less stress, I was eating better, I started exercising more.
I made a decision that I wasn'tgoing to hate myself for,
whatever my habits, myweaknesses, I still knew it
wasn't good.
In fact, the reason why I'mtelling you about this permitted
to quit it approach is becauseit worked, and that's when I
(16:43):
coined the approach.
I was like yo, I'm going topermit it to quit it, I'm going
to smoke these cigarettes, I'mgoing to enjoy myself, I'm going
to permit it to quit it, I'mgoing to smoke these cigarettes,
I'm going to enjoy myself, I'mgoing to have a good time with
it, and it's going to peter out.
I've tried the other ways.
I've tried hypnosis.
I've tried cold turkey.
What do I have to lose?
That's what I did.
I permitted it to quit it and Iquit it.
(17:05):
After that period of time whenI took that philosophy and
coined this phrase that I'msharing with you, I've never had
a cigarette since then.
I quit smoking and never evenhad a craving for it again.
Is that a technique you coulduse?
Would you like to unravel thesebad habits you can't seem to
(17:28):
get rid of?
Maybe it's time to consideranother approach.
Some people hate me for sayingit, but with a little knowledge
of the Bible and a little bit ofcreativity and some critical
thinking.
I think the Bible does leaveyou some groundwork for this.
I believe there is somestructure here.
I don't think this is a nuttyidea.
(17:49):
There are bad habits that arehurting you or they're hurting
other people and, practicallyspeaking, if you need it to end,
you need to be like pulling onto whatever life vest you can
find After you've tried to gocold turkey and failed.
You know you tried this othertime and then people found out
(18:10):
and they hated on you and talkedabout you and talked down to
you, and then you hated onyourself and talked down on
yourself.
As soon as you're done with allthose things, maybe give
permitted acquitted a try.
I'm not a psychologist.
This isn't medical advice.
This is just something JimmyJames Johnson invented for
(18:31):
myself and perhaps it saved mylife and it could do the same
for you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!