Self-Control

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” ESV

My sister will probably shoot me when she reads this post someday, but it’s a great story to prove my devotional thought for the day. She is 3 years older than me, and my only sibling. We did everything together as children, for the most part. This particular Sunday happened to be our mother’s birthday, and our dad had baked her a cake, complete with frosting. I think it was Italian Creme. Anyway, Sunday afternoons in our home were typically nap times, but my sister and I weren’t sleepy. We knew that cake was just sitting under the Tupperware Cake cover in the kitchen...just sitting there. And we knew our parents were asleep. To the kitchen we tiptoed to just get a little finger swipe of that delicious icing. We stuck our little pinkies in that icing, licked it off, but then quickly realized that one little taste would definitely not be enough. The sugar was calling us back, and back we went. In fact, we went back so many times that when we stopped, there was NO icing left on that cake. We had finger-licked the entire cake clean. What were we to do? Put the Tupperware cover back on! They’ll never notice! Inwardly, we both knew what would happen, but little girls can hope, right? 

Paul speaks in Galatians 5 of the marks of the Holy Spirit on a person’s life. These things are the evidence that the Holy Spirit dwells in you and lives through you. When He takes up residence, the evidence that He is there are things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. An entire sermon series and even a college course could be taught on these two verses alone, but today, I’d like to just focus on the self-control part. 

Paul emphasizes here that because we are saved and filled with His Spirit, we no longer need to live life by our own strength but by His Spirit. He gives us the power to produce the kind of fruit referenced here in this verse. Self-Control. Self-control is something that I’ve struggled with my entire life. I’ve lived a moral life, never stealing, never murdering, never vengeful and spiteful, but I definitely have self-indulged. I’ve indulged in hurling hurtful words to make myself feel better, telling lies when it benefitted me, and eating so much that I went into an emotional coma just to drown my sorrows. Overall, I’ve always battled with self-control. Living a self-controlled life, though, is something that marks us as Holy-Spirit filled people. I want to share His love, joy, and peace with others, along with every other good fruit He produces, but I can’t just leave out self-control. What catastrophes we would make of relationships and situations if we didn’t exercise self-control! And imagine what catastrophes we could avoid if we did.

The great thing here about this list isn’t the gifts we receive when He fills us though, it’s the fact that He gives us the power to control ourselves! Don’t you see? He tells us to be self-controlled, but He empowers it! How awesome is that?!? We don’t have to live life realizing only after we’ve licked the frosting off the entire cake that we should’ve done better.

Where do you need to exercise self-control? Is it in your nutrition, exercise, or speech? Ask Him to help you. He gives us the power to live life pleasing to Him. 

Encouragement for Today

Proverbs 25:28 “A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.” NLT

2 Peter 1:5-7 “...make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.” NLT

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” NLT