When you hear “self control”, do you think if it being will power? I’ve been in trainings where we were taught to wear a rubber band around our wrist. Each time we exhibited a negative behavior, we were to pull it back and snap it. The pain was to tell our brain to associate that behavior with pain and thereby help our self control in that area. However, Biblically self control isn’t about our willpower alone. It’s about being empowered by the Spirit of God within us to deny our flesh and to say yes to what God is asking of us. Jesus warned us that the flesh is weak, but the Spirit is willing. Self control helps us live by the Spirit.
Saul, Israel’s first king, was a person who lacked self control. In 1 Samuel 13, he was waiting for Samuel to show up and sacrifice to God for victory over the Philistines. The longer Samuel took, the more the opposing army grew. His men began to get disheartened and started leaving. Finally he offered the sacrifices himself. As he finished, Samuel showed up and pronounced judgement on him. Then his lack of self control got him further in trouble when he didn’t kill all the animals, nor King Agag of the Amalekites. He was more worried about what people thought than what God said. He followed his flesh rather than having the self control to trust God. Because of that, the kingdom was torn from him and given to David.
Proverbs 16:32 says, “Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city” (NLT). I’m sure King David taught this lesson to Solomon. We can’t prioritize public success over private discipline. We must learn to produce the Fruits of the Spirit in our life, including self control. In fact, self control is what enables us to produce the other fruits mentioned. Without it, we can’t consistently produce the other fruits. We must be willing to obey God’s voice over our flesh. We must be led by the Holy Spirit in our lives. Our flesh truly is weak, but it’s better to have self control and listen to Him. True success comes from that.
Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 