111 SELF CONTROL
111 SELF CONTROL
Self control is one of the key elements that show the world that you are a Christian.
When you got saved, you were enthusiastic and excited about God, scriptures and life. You embraced your new religion and tried to give it to everyone you met. The reality of Jesus became the central focus of your whole life. You neglected your family, work, responsibilities and necessities to follow and learn about this new freedom.
This is a normal process and most people will excuse the new Christian because of their joy and exuberance but, after awhile, it becomes irritating and you start grating on others nerves. The opposition starts coming from everyone else and your aggression starts getting negative feedback. This makes you start to doubt the power of God and you try to understand; the newness is wearing off, so, what happened?
At first, you think that it is just the devil giving you a rough time; isn’t that what he is supposed to do? You try harder; now even your church family is trying to slow you down. Don’t they know how important Jesus is and how important it is to tell the rest of the world?
Many, would be, mature and solid kingdom citizens fail because they are not told why they are to slow down. They are pumped up, encouraged to ‘keep following’ and praised for their efforts but it takes a wise older Christian to take them aside to show and teach them about self control.
God will give many jobs to many of His people and, even, to those that can not handle the chore because they continually ask for them and ignore His voice telling them that they are not ready. When they mess up, they blame and doubt God; then the church is left doing damage control when it should be going forward at a steady and strong pace.
Self control is the number one thing that the world does not have and its lack is the most evident and prosperous tool that the devil has. Those who control themselves are continually being picked at, even by supposedly well meaning Christians.
We laud love and peace at the expense of doing right and self control. Our agenda must be right because it’s what God told us to do so it must be what God wants for everyone else; right? We were not told to tell others what God wants us to do because it might be what He wants them to do. God told us what to do so that we could do it, period. Everything after that is a lack of self control.
We can come up with all kinds of good sounding ideas and reasons why we think we are to do the things that we were not told to do but, this too, is just a lack of self control.
God’s word states that anyone who controls their tongue and keeps silent is considered wise by those around them. [It is not stated whether they really are wise or not but, sooner or later, they will say something and then their wisdom or lack thereof will be seen.]
In today’s world where everyone gives in to their own lust and desires and self control is almost non-existent, those that exercise good self control stand out like a candle in the dark. [Yes, I used that phrase for just that reason]
God commands us to use self control; most people will be irritated and think us fools but, maybe, just maybe, there will be some that will stop and think and ask themselves why you do what you do when everyone else is doing it differently. Right then would not be the time to lose your self control and give a silly answer; control yourself and really tell them why you obey the master of all creation.
