Self Control
Self control is a fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Gal 5:22-23)
Yet; multitudes of Christians feel guilty each day for things they are exercising self-control over. They are obeying God but giving in to feelings of guilt and depression from the enemy.
You may be feeling drawn in a wrong direction and feeling guilty about this. The question is: why would God command us to exercise self control if there would be no pull towards wrong things every now and then?
It is the same question I ask about patience: Why would God command patience if we would have everything we wanted whenever we wanted them?
Duh!
God commands self control because there would always be desires for things that are not necesarilly right pulling at us. James addressed this:
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:14 – 15)
We are tempted when we are drawn towards wrong things. But temptation is not sin. We don’t sin until we give in to those pulls. We must not toy with those desires. if we do, we will give in to them and then we have sin in our hands.
Just keep saying “No” to those wrong desires by the grace that we have been called to. Keep trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ to keep you. Everytime you say “No” to that desire is a victory. The feelings of guilt by the enemy is a ploy to depress you and weaken you.
Say No. As a believer, you are a slave to righteousness now, and regardless of the pulls of the world we live in, we must continue reminding of ourselves that we are NOT of this world:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions–is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 Jn 2:15-16)
PS: And if you do give in at some point, don’t forget that we have a High Priest who is capable and dependable (1 Jn 1:9).
There is no self control if there is no pull. Don’t feel guilty about the pull. Just exercise self control. And understand that to exercise self control is to live pleasing in the eyes of the Lord.
Shalom!
Posted on July 8, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Firefox 3.6.3 
Windows XP“Self control is a fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives”, you said. Great truth indeed. The filling ministry of the Holy Spirit no doubts depends on the believer and whenever we yield ourselves to Him, our ability to execute any area of our our spiritual lives in His power is activated resulting in the the fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22,23. Keep on writing brother, for the Christian life is designed to function on knowledge (Nothing more).
ERNEST
Posted on July 8, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Timely and well said. Especially the part about the guilt. Honestly, I didn’t know it was of the devil. I thought it was my conscience. I refuse to give in to the feelings of guilt & depression.
I’m reminded to say No, especially when everything else in my body says yes, yes, & YES.
Thank you sir.