Where there's a will, there's NO way

As we approach the Spiritual Disciplines, it's easy to think that somehow we can make them happen through sheer willpower. It is in our nature to rely on ourselves to achieve the things we want. We launch a frontal attack on the areas of our lives that we want to change. We determine that we can conquer anger, fear, bitterness, gluttony, pride, lust, substance abuse ... whatever our sin du jour ... with our own force of will. We try, even when we know it's futile, to work our way into God's favor.
Willpower can never succeed in dealing with our ingrained habits of sin. Richard Foster, in his introductory chapter in Celebration of Discipline, quotes Emmet Fox, "As soon as you resist mentally any undesirable or unwanted circumstance, you thereby endow it with more power--power which it will use against you..." How many of us can name, through personal experience, the times we've told ourselves, "That's my last piece of chocolate (or last cigarette or the last time I'll swear), only to find we are uncontrollably drawn back to that very thing.
It is only when we surrender our will to Christ do we find victory. And that is the purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines ... not to make us "good" but to bring us to a place where God can work his righteousness into us. Righteousness is a gift from God, it is not something we can earn. Through the Spiritual Disciplines we are preparing the soil for Him to grow the Fruit of the Spirit (i.e. love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) in us. We cannot force these virtues to grow in us anymore than a farmer can force his seeds to grow. Our wills can only deal with 'externals.' As Foster writes, "It (willpower) is incapable of bringing about the necessary transformation of the inner spirit." 
Isn't that what we long for? An inner transformation: a pure heart?
Psalm 42: 1-2 expresses this longing: "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?"
It is my hope that as we explore these 12 Spiritual Disciplines (Meditation, Prayer, Fasting, Study, Simplicity, Solitude, Submission, Service, Confession, Worship, Guidance, Celebration), our lives will be changed from the inside out. I pray that we learn to drink deep from the living water that springs from the heart of God.