Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Playing by the Rules”
Our Bible verse for today: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “God expects His people to exercise self-control.”
Let’s take a moment to consider Galatians 5:22-23 as translated in the Amplified Bible:
“But the fruit of the (Holy) Spirit (the work which His presence within accomplishes) is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence).”
So, one of the fruits of the Spirit (one of the virtues He develops in us as we mature in Christ), is the ability to exercise self-control. This is the ability to voluntarily restrain ourselves from giving into the impulses of the flesh.
Obviously there are numerous examples of how our ability to employ self-control could be seen in our lives. Self-control can apply to the issue of sexual purity; or to the avoidance of gluttony; or to impulse-buying that leads to bad stewardship in financial matters; or to any number of other life issues.
Going back to the subject of our previous devotional message pertaining to how we deal with other people, self-control should also apply issues of taking offense and of getting angry. The more spiritually mature we are the more self-control we will have in how we deal with people and the less likely we will be to take offense, or to lash out in anger, or to pop-off with inappropriate responses.
Self-control is a character trait the Spirit develops in us over time. So does that mean we can just sit back and wait for the Holy Spirit to do His job and develop increasing measures of self-control and restraint in us, while we just continue on with our current habits? No. We have a role to play in this too. While the results are produced by the Spirit, the effort must be ours.
We have a responsibility to frequently and continuously place ourselves in a position before God whereby the Spirit can do His work within us. Specifically, with respect to self-control, we admit to God the area of life in which we are lacking in self-control. Then we make that issue a matter of prayer, but we must also make an effort to be disciplined in this area. Then, working in conjunction with us, the Spirit does His work and over time, He develops in us the spiritual fruit of self-control.
What does all of this have to do with our theme of “Playing by the Rules”? Just that God expects His people to exercise self-control. Our habits are to be submitted to, and brought under the control of, the Holy Spirit. When we do that the Spirit helps us to avoid a lack of self-control that results in unhealthy or sinful excesses.
But don’t be discouraged. None of us are perfect. We all struggle with the issue of self-control to varying degrees in different areas of our lives. It’s the work of the Spirit to help us gain control over those issues.
I encourage you to identify the areas in which you struggle with self-control and honestly admit them to God. Then submit your struggle to the Spirit asking Him to help you gain increased measures of self-control in those areas.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 