Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Reading the list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, we might be tempted to think, “Well, I can be loving and joyful. God can give me peace and help me to be kind, good, faithful, and gentle. But self-control? Lord, you MUST be kidding!”
Throughout our lives, we have learned that there are some things we can control and others that we can’t. While we might be able to control our work schedules to a degree, we have no idea when one of our children will fall sick at school, prompting a hurried trip to collect the child and a rearrangement of duties for the rest of the day. We think we can control our schedules at home until the day we sleep through our alarms and are nearly late for work.
We know we can’t control the weather! Due to a five-hour time zone difference between West Africa and Buffalo, New York, my husband was able to watch the last quarter of the recent Buffalo Bills football game. The Buffalo area was being pounded by a blizzard, and officials had to keep stopping the game to sweep the snow off the field! During the latest rainy season in our area, the rains came late and then those in a neighboring country opened the spillways on a dam. The results were that parts of our area flooded worse than they had ever been flooded previously.
But what’s tougher to control than anything else? Self-control is tougher. Exerting self-control is like playing the game “Whack-a-Mole.” Just when you think you have successfully struck the mole in one place, another mole pops up someplace else. We might not have a problem with overeating, but pressures from advertising are impelling us to spend money wildly for Christmas presents. And if you manage money wisely, how well are you doing with your exercise program? Have you said something regrettable recently? Are you shirking on your duties at home?
Face it, folks; we need divine help! What’s the difference between our stressing and straining to exert self-control and the self-control that is a fruit of the Holy Spirit? Results. When the Holy Spirit enters our hearts and lives, He changes us so that we are able to bear things we previously thought were unbearable. Just as we need the Holy Spirit to enable us to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, and gentle, only the Holy Spirit can enable us to truly have self-control.
Why is self-control so important spiritually? Won’t God love us if we fail in a particular area? Yes, God will still love us; however, the more we learn about God, the more we want to tell others about Him. If we are careening through our lives, swaying from one extreme to another, we are bad advertising for God.
“Oh!” you say, “but I’m impulsive. That’s simply my nature.” True, but impulsiveness is not God’s nature. God is all-powerful and all-knowing and therefore has no need to be impulsive. God doesn’t waste time or energy or resources; we are the ones who waste those things.
If we say we are God-followers, we should want to reflect God’s nature and not our own. The problem is that the more we know of God, the more we realize how very short of His majestic nature we fall. It’s a spiritual truth that people become what they have worshipped. When you worship anything less than God, you are opening yourself up to Satanic influence. Worshiping God is the only safe spiritual path.
How can we gain self-control? James 1:19-27 tells us “My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls. Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves. For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
The only way we are truly going to gain self-control is to allow God to fill us with His Holy Spirit. And the only way the Holy Spirit can come is when we confess that we are sinners and cannot free ourselves and ask God to deliver us from our sins. God wants to send the Holy Spirit to us; we are the ones hindering Him. When we humble ourselves, God will gladly send the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit enters our hearts, He will immediately begin changing us into God’s likeness. That process of change will last the rest of our lives.
How do we know God has changed us? Some frustrating problem comes up, and we find ourselves able to deal in a way we never could before. Or someone says something bitter to us, and rather than becoming offended and striking back, we are able to intercede for that person. If overeating has been a problem, we find we are able to control our eating; in fact, we are able to control whatever obsessive behaviors we have previously indulged in. Before, we were trying to do things ourselves, but now the Holy Spirit is empowering us, and we are gaining self-control.
This Christmas, why not give yourself the best gift you can possibly give? Tell God you are powerless to help yourself and beg Him to give You His Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, He will immediately begin manifesting His fruits in your life.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, we confess that we are sinners, caught in our own wrong-doing, and that we cannot free ourselves. Thank You that You have sent Jesus Your Son to die for our sins and to deliver us. Please send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we will live lives full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We ask this in the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
Burunche's Blog 
Leave a comment