How Removing Guilt and Shame Helps Christians Overcome Addiction

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.

Transcript

Christians and Their Bad Habits

Speaker 1 0:00

Christians have bad habits, just like everyone else. Maybe it's adultery, maybe it's lying, maybe it's violence, smoking, drinking, pornography, overeating, selling, discord between people, not falling through on your vow to God or to others, betraying people's trust. What are your bad habits, what are you supposed to do about it, and what does the Bible say about renting yourself free from them? Jimmy James Johnson, guilt-free faith going to get you feeling better about yourself so that you can walk in victory today, growing up in the church, I was never told that bad habits were part of the Christian walk. Some of them were having affairs. Some of them were taking a sip of the whiskey before the service. Maybe the pastor right. All these things were going on, but rarely were they ever talked about. What does it mean to be a Christian with a bad habit? This helped me. Let's see if it'll help you.

Speaker 1 0:56

I'm going to take a concrete example from my own life. I wanted to quit smoking. Particularly as I got into my 20s. I started to feel like man. I'm really not enjoying this.

Speaker 1 1:08

You know that smoking is not doing you any favors, right, but the fact remains that quitting smoking isn't easy. Rarely do you succeed right out of the gate. They say that the average person tries quitting numerous times before they're successful, and I personally can attest to that. I don't know how many times I quit over those years, but it could have definitely been 15 times. Sometimes you quit because you just felt sick. Sometimes you quit because you had just heard of somebody that had died of a smoking-related illness. But regardless of what it was, it still would grab onto you and you would find yourself in a time of weakness, stress, depression or maybe just being around other people that were smoking and would just break you down. One of the things that I discovered for myself was that trying to make this hard stop of quitting wasn't working. It hadn't worked in the past. I had no reason to believe that it was going to work in the future. So I started experimenting with this idea of let's remove the restriction, the guilt, the shame of smoking and see how that gives me more breathing room.

Speaker 1 2:16

Most Christians you talk to would never suggest oh yeah, just give yourself more leeway to do that. That will end up chipping away at your addiction. Nobody's going to say that they're going to hit you with the law. They're going to say you're not supposed to do that or smoking's bad for you. There's no ifs, ands or buts. So-and-so died from it. You got to quit. You got to quit, you got to quit. How many times has somebody said that to you? You got to quit.

My Smoking Struggle

Speaker 1 2:40

This could be smoking, drugs, workaholism, infidelity, binge eating. It encompasses a great many things, some of which we name acceptable, but most of them are not things that people proudly stand up and go. Yeah, that's what I'm into. And similarly, people aren't going to proudly stand up and say you know what man you need to permit that until you quit that up and say you know what man you need to permit that until you quit that, nobody's going to stand up in church and say, wait, I have an idea, I have an idea. Instead of just praying for a miracle that they would wake up tomorrow and not want to smoke, how about we take another approach? How about you just permit that to quit that? How about you permit that to quit that?

Speaker 1 3:23

What does it mean? It means taking off the pressure, the guilt, the shame, the embarrassment, all the negative self-talk, the beating up on yourself. It means removing all of that, just tuning that right out, and you might be saying that's the opposite of where I want to go. I'm not trying to convince myself that this is okay, that I want to keep on smoking. I'm not suggesting that's what you're doing. What you're actually doing is removing some of the emotional and psychological barriers that are actually keeping you stuck in that habit.

Speaker 1 4:00

And this is what I mean. You're stressed out, right, you smoke a cigarette. Now you're beating up on yourself, you're shaming yourself. You, I mean you stressed out, right, you smoke a cigarette. Now you're beating up on yourself, 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 on you. But when you start that self-talk, that internal dialogue, that condemnation, that guilt cycle going, all you want is another cigarette. Isn't that strange? That actually makes you want another cigarette. Why? Because one of the triggers for you smoking is stress, is depression, is feeling hopeless, is despair. So here, every time you have a setback, you beat yourself up into a state that's sure to push you into another setback. So that's the cycle you get into.

Permit It to Quit It Technique

Speaker 1 4:49

I've experienced this with smoking. I've experienced this with food. I call this the Jimmy James Johnson permit it to quit technique, and what it means is what it says that we have to permit some things to quit them. We can't always break a cycle by guilting and beating up ourselves, not allowing ourselves an inch. We can't give ourselves any grace, we can't have a bad day, we can't have a setback. What I would submit to you that I've personally experienced in my life is how this shocking and surprising technique can work, and I'm actually going to tie this into the Bible, believe it or not. So you're going to want to watch the rest of this to see how I've got to pull off this magic act. Why can't we ever get somebody to say you know what? Maybe, just maybe psychologically, the way we're built? There's something to this. I think it's a matter of the law, like the biblical law. I'm going to tie this into the Bible in two ways. This might shake up the comment board a little bit.

Speaker 1 5:54

One all things are permitted to me, but not all things are good for me. Just think about that. That's not a verse you expect to hear out of the Bible One of a million times. When it pays to read the Bible for yourself, because you'll be surprised at the things that people leave out or edit or turn into what they want it to be. And some people will say that's what 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 that here.

Speaker 1 6:29

When I read that verse it really struck me. All things are permitted to me, but not all things are helpful. It's a real head-scratcher because you just read all through the Old Testament about all these things that weren't permitted. Here's somebody came down with the stone tablets. Here are all the laws. Here's all the atonement and sacrifices to expiate that sin, to cleanse you and Israel of that sin. And then you go into the New Testament and you're like, oh, jesus didn't sin and he came to save us and forgive us for our sins. So surely there's nothing that says go ahead and sin and it's just all good. What does that verse really mean?

Speaker 1 7:11

I think the significance of the verse is, for me personally, it's really not reasonable for a human being to expect themselves to not sin, even if it's just in their thoughts. That's just not happening. There's no one that you've ever met who hasn't sinned in some way every day, in thought, in deed. So if you accept that, then you have to think what would the justice be? What kind of God would be like? What kind of God would be like, oh, yeah. So all these things that you're naturally drawn towards, that we're labeling sins, yeah, we're just going to keep condemning you for those and Don't even dare take a break from that guilt. Don't take a break from that condemnation.

Speaker 1 8:00

There are people like that. For instance, I have OCD. There's one theme in OCD called scrupulosity. It's an obsession with morals or ethics or religious teaching. But basically people literally go through their day constantly analyzing their thoughts, what they're looking at, what they're 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 just some type of weak addict. I'm just a piece of junk. I don't see how that's really going to be helpful.

Speaker 1 8:41

You may know people, you may have grown up with people, you may have been to Catholic school with people who try to convince you that all these things are sins and that you're born this sinner, carrying this burden with you and you need to feel guilty, slogging along carrying this crappy version of yourself and I want to disagree with that because one I don't think that's healthy If you think about yourself as just a low-down, dirty sinner, then you're not going to be feeling good. If you're looking for Jesus to lift you up in victory, or you come out of the church feeling strong, at the same time you've convinced yourself that you're a total piece of crap. That's not going to happen. You can't tell yourself you're crap and that you're redeemed and wonderful all at the same time. All at the same time.

The Biblical Connection

Speaker 1 9:40

I think that's one of the reasons why people have trouble in the Christian church, because they're like I don't understand how these two things can be true at the same time. That's a lot of mental gymnastics for me. 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 and turning on yourself. If God loves you, then surely His plan for you isn't for you to walk around feeling like crap every day. We're supposed to be focused on the cross, right. We're supposed to be focused on redemption and victory and love. We can't do that at the same time. We're focused on our failings and flaws and sins.

Speaker 1 10:25

Similarly, with these bad habits going back to smoking, it's really hard to give up a habit that's triggered by your emotional state, your stress, the cortisol, all that stuff, while at the same time you're creating 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 not sleeping right. So, yes, you're going to keep relapsing because you have no reservoir of wellness that's going to give you the fuel to free you from wanting that. Because if you're going to try to white-knuckle it, some people think that's the way to break addictions. Maybe sometimes that is the way.

Speaker 1 11:08

This isn't meant to be like a one-size-fits-all for everything, at all times, forever. This is an unconventional technique that I myself have used. And here are the two biblical tie-ins. One, all things are permitted to me, but not all things are helpful. Now, that sounds like a reasonable verse, isn't it? Quite? Literally, everything is permitted, because nobody can stop you from just going and doing whatever it is you want to do. And secondly, I think we can all agree that not everything we can do is necessarily helpful or good for us. We could go out and get in trouble. I could go out and eat some fast food. My body's not going to appreciate that. I could take up smoking again my body's not going to appreciate that. These things are not against the law. Nobody can stop me. But they're not good for me. They're not helpful to me. I'm ultimately not going to be feeling better having done them To me. That's a much more compassionate and realistic approach to Christianity. That's the first verse.

Speaker 1 12:15

Second, there is a verse that talks about how the law sows the seed of rebellion. I'll have to put it into description, but here's the thing. It sounds strange, but we've all seen this. What's the first thing a kid does when you tell them they can't do something Exactly what you just told them they couldn't do? It's rebellion. Some adults are also very obvious in this regard, but I think that's the whole point. Right Is that?

Law Creates Rebellion

Speaker 1 12:45

Whether we're talking about children, whether we're talking about adults, there's something about the human psyche that doesn't like being told what to do. We don't like someone putting their foot down on something we want or desire. We don't want someone opposing our will. When somebody tries to lay down the law on us whether that's what time we're supposed to go to bed tonight because we're a kid, or why we're supposed to stay faithful in a committed relationship those things sow the seeds of rebellion. There's that little, that pulling that jolt, wait, whoa? No I, I want to do something different from that. I have a better plan. I know better. I'm free to do what I want. You can see the truth in that verse. Yes, the law actually creates rebellion. Now that could go down a whole rabbit hole, because then it'd be like why would God then make the law? Because then he would have known that people would have broken it.

Speaker 1 13:49

This video isn't going to cover all those things, but let's just agree that the law sows the seeds of rebellion in your heart. So think about this, like in the smoking example as soon as you're trying to hammer yourself, trying to put your foot down on yourself I'm never smoking, I hate smoke, I'm never going to smoke again You're just planting that seed, that rebellion, that psychological pushback. It's just meeting you, however hard you're pushing the law on yourself, you're pushing down on yourself with the law and with guilt and with shame, and it's just pushing right back. I got to do this, or I feel like doing this, or I had a bad day, or what difference does it even make? There's that constant tension, all that torquing going on, all those emotions. That's not getting you any closer to the emotional freedom that you may need to actually quit smoking.

Speaker 1 14:52

There's an irony there by declaring something bad, we can get ourselves into trouble without knowing it, particularly if we haven't considered this aspect of human psychology and we haven't read those parts of the Bible. Haven't you ever told somebody to quit smoking? And it seemed like they're digging in even deeper. You keep telling them and they're just digging in. It's not because they're a bad person. It's not because they're saved or not saved, or there's a generational curse on them or something like that. No, it's because, for whatever reason, god told us that the way that we're constructed is, we will rebel when the law is pushed on us. Does it make a little bit more sense now? Remove the law, remove the guilt, the shame, the pressure from yourself. Let me tell you what happened with me. Let me tell you what happened with me Once I removed that dire battle over smoking is bad and oh, it's going to kill you tomorrow and oh, nobody can quit and oh, why don't you have the willpower?

My Success Story

Speaker 1 16:08

Once I started dropping that, I started to feel a lot more relaxed. The tension started coming out of me. I started accepting and loving myself more, and with that came less stress, I was eating better, I started exercising more. I made a decision that I wasn't going to hate myself for, whatever my habits, my weaknesses, I still knew it wasn't good. In fact, the reason why I'm telling you about this permitted to quit it approach is because it worked, and that's when I coined the approach. I was like yo, I'm going to permit it to quit it, I'm going to smoke these cigarettes, I'm going to enjoy myself, I'm going to permit it to quit it, I'm going to smoke these cigarettes, I'm going to enjoy myself, I'm going 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 I quit it. After that period of time when I took that philosophy and coined this phrase that I'm sharing with you, I've never had a cigarette since then. I quit smoking and never even had a craving for it again.

Speaker 1 17:22

Is that a technique you could use? Would you like to unravel these bad habits you can't seem to get rid of? Maybe it's time to consider another approach. Some people hate me for saying it, but with a little knowledge of the Bible and a little bit of creativity and some critical thinking. I think the Bible does leave you some groundwork for this.

Speaker 1 17:45

I believe there is some structure here. I don't think this is a nutty idea. There are bad habits that are hurting you or they're hurting other people and, practically speaking, if you need it to end, you need to be like pulling on to whatever life vest you can find After you've tried to go cold turkey and failed. You know you tried this other time and then people found out and they hated on you and talked about you and talked down to you, and then you hated on yourself and talked down on yourself. As soon as you're done with all those things, maybe give permitted acquitted a try. I'm not a psychologist. This isn't medical advice. This is just something Jimmy James Johnson invented for myself and perhaps it saved my life and it could do the same for you.