What does it mean? Do I have it? In what areas? In what areas do I not have it? What will I do about that?
Those who are followers of Jesus Christ have the Holy Spirit indwelling them. Thus, I'd say each follower has that 'seed' of self-control waiting to germinate, sprout and flourish. Yet how does one 'water' and cultivate this fruit of the Holy Spirit?
For starters we followers of Jesus Christ have no excuse to get out of control with our anger; eating habits; and addictions. Why? Because we have God's Holy Spirit within us to lead, and guide and convict us to choose to do what's right. We cannot say, "Oh, I'm only human and God knows that!"
That's only partially true. We are human, but we cannot say, "only" because we have the almighty help of God through His Holy Spirit. We have to get a hold onto that mindset and stop making excuses for ourselves.
However, there is a need to be sensitive to His leading and guiding and convictions. Don't ignore them.
Another analogy is that self-control is similar to a muscle. Muscle builders do not lift cars or pull fire engines overnight. There is the process of training; lifting heavier and heavier weights. Oh, and eating a certain regimen of healthy food.
So too, when we exercise that self-control, bit by sure bit we will blossom and flourish in that area. As we read God's Word, the Bible, we feed our spirit "health food"; we learn about God and what He wants of us, and how we can have a closer relationship with Him.
This is part of Christian living which comes under the heading of 'sanctification' which keeps getting mentioned over and over again in this Burning Quest series.
This sanctification comes only after justification. Salvation through Jesus Christ first...then, sanctification; walking in step with the Holy Spirit of God.
The Buddhist way is a striving for sanctification towards justification engineered by one's own human effort. One course of action towards this is to deny oneself food.
The author Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda of the book What Buddhists Believe writes that fasting from food is an excellent exercise to engage in to further ones' self-control. It creates self-discipline (Page 280).
Fasting from food is a good idea and can indeed teach some degree of self-control when one perseveres therein.
Very often in the New Testament the followers of Jesus Christ are found fasting. This fasting was generally coupled with prayer prior to making a major decision. They didn't rush into verdicts or recommendations. They wanted to wait upon God to know His answer and get His direction.
Jesus Himself practiced this. There's the well-known story of Jesus fasting for forty days/nights in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). Then Satan comes along and tries to tempt Him. Jesus resists. However, Jesus, the perfect Son of God, did not engage in fasting to gain self-control. Rather, He sought His Father's will prior to making decisions. It was after this that He chose His twelve disciples and began His earthly ministry.
The early disciples followed suit. Praying and fasting to see who should go on a missionary journey (Acts 13:3), among other reasons.
One must exercise self-control in order to fast. One of the benefits, in turn, would be greater self-control developing.
This could be true in regards to more than just refraining from food. How about refraining from playing excessively with on-line games? From pornography? From gambling or other addictions? From lust? From saying those words of retaliation you would just so love, love, love to burst back with? When we walk in step with the Holy Spirit we will have His dynamic power* to help us have control in areas we need it.
For the Buddhist, fasting is said to teach against the "lust of gluttony" (Page 280) and no doubt a host of other things. Buddhists always wish to quell desire; fasting is a means of so doing.
Sri Dhammananda quotes one Leo Tolstoy as saying,
"A man who eats too much, cannot strive against laziness, while a gluttonous and idle man will never be able to contend with sexual lust..."
Doesn't that knock your socks right off your feet!? Each of us has our 'thing' that beckons and entices us into thwarting self-control, so each of us must guard our spirits from the lusts and desires that threaten to overcome us.
Praise God, in Christ we can have the victory! It's already been mentioned that we have His Holy Spirit, with the self-control characteristic, to bind and break that which is unwholesomely keeping us in bondage. We can also pray to God through Jesus to seek His aid in learning self-control and to choose to make His desires as our own.
There's a saying that for someone we love, their "every wish is our command". Let God's wishes, will and ways be our commands; His interests, be our interests. To persevere in self-control would be one of those great desires of God.
Some months back in our Bible study group we were looking at Malachi 2:15, 16 where, because of,
"the Lord God of Israel,"
Malachi says to,
"guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith."
By guarding your spirit by choosing self-control, a person will bring about that life in Christ that is well pleasing to God.
Good and small decisions will add up to make good character to produce good conduct that makes the big decisions (to paraphrase and borrow another saying) and keeps us in step with the Holy Spirit of God and allows self-control to flourish.
May this be your story as well as mine as we, followers of Jesus Christ, rely on God to sanctify our minds, hearts, spirits and actions.
~ERC August 2018~
* The Passion Translation (TPT); Romans 8.
Additional reading, if you wish:
https://euniqueegirl.blogspot.com/2016/04/morning-musings-blameless-and-useful.html
https://euniqueegirl.blogspot.com/2016/04/morning-musings-alert-and-self.html
A good read. Thks
ReplyDelete