“You are more than the sum total of your feelings and perfectly capable of that little gift from Jesus called self-control.” ~ Lysa Terkeurst
Do you want more joy, peace, hope and power in your life? If so, it starts with living a life of self-control.
In fact, self-control is one of the nine fruit of the Spirit (Galations 5:22-23). As followers of Christ we ought to desire to grow in each of these fruits.
However, having strong willpower in your life is not that easy. Many struggle a lot in this area, choosing to give into their emotions and worldly desires, and, therefore, living defeated lives.
Without self-control in your life you cannot be all that God created you for.
Your sinful nature is always at battle with the Spirit of God that lives inside of you. If you are constantly giving into your fleshly desires you cannot be the man or woman God wants you to be.
Most importantly, the lack of discipline in your life puts a barrier between you and God.
So, how can you refine and grow in the area of self-control and therefore draw closer to God? Below are some baby steps that can help you.
1. You have to desire a more disciplined lifestyle.
This may sound simple, but it’s very crucial. If you don’t really want to change, you won’t.
It has to be important enough for you.
In John 5 there is a story of a man that had been sick for 38 years. Jesus approaches this man and asks him a simple question:
“Would you like to get well?”
Although the man answers Jesus with an excuse, Jesus tells him “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
I love this illustration because I feel many live their lives making excuses for their bad choices. We either blame others for our problems or we believe the lie that we are incapable of changing.
Once you have decided that you want to and believe you can have more balance in your life, then the next baby step is to pray.
2. Ask God to help you.
We cannot do anything without God’s help. In fact, too often we forget to bring Him into our problems and issues.
Again, this is a simple step, but it’s a powerful one.
Simply ask God to give you the strength and courage to make right choices.
Ask Him for more self-control in your life. Allow the Holy Spirit to take over (Romans 8:9).
Be specific in your requests to God. He desires for you to come to Him as a little child.
3. Commit to spending at least ten minutes every morning with God.
I really hope that you would be able to give God more than ten minutes, but I feel that this is a good place to start.
And I purposefully said “morning” because I believe it is critical to start your day with Jesus. Even if you plan on spending more time with Him later, just give Him some time in the morning.
Read a passage of Scripture.
Talk to Him.
Give Him your burdens.
Confess your sins to Him.
Surrender yourself to Him.
Ten minutes will hopefully turn into thirty minutes, and eventually who knows, maybe into two hours.
The key is to start your day with your Maker, every day.
These are three very basic and simple steps that can help you to prune the fruit of self-control in your life and consequently develop your relationship with Christ.
You have to decide for yourself what type of life you want to live- one for yourself or one for Jesus. Do you want to live a life to please Him or yourself? There are consequences to each choice. You will be held responsible for how you decide to live.
Jesus wants you to be a person with self-control.
If you want a more fulfilling life then push yourself to make the necessary changes.
Allow the love of Jesus to control you (2 Corinthians 5:14) and believe you can change with Jesus’s strength and power in you.
The road to the abundant life that Jesus has to offer is narrow and few find it because living for Jesus is not easy. But living in obedience for Him is where the richness of life is. It’s a life full of joy, peace, hope and power.
I pray you choose to follow Christ with a committed love for Him. It is through your love for Him that your desire to live in obedience to Him and His Word will outflow (John 14:15,23).
Feel free to leave me a comment below on which of these baby steps you are willing to make to help you grow in the area of self-control.
“Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.“ ~ 2 Corinthians 5:14
Sweet Sister, thank you for stating the obvious, or not so obvious in such a beautiful and simple way. I so much appreciate your thoughts, and your insights into God’s Word. Because I grew up with these principles, it is so easy for me to take things for granted. You always have a fresh perspective! Keep writing! I love you!
Dearest Sherry,
You are blessed to have been raised with godly principles. I know you are very grateful for that. Now God uses you to help others, like me, to learn them. Thank you for always encouraging me to continue writing. The Lord knows I need the encouragement, so THANK YOU!!!
I love you sis~
I loved this, Tweeny. It is just what i needed today.
My pleasure Cindy. Grateful that you are reading my blog:)
What a blessing you are! A dear friend of mine, Karen M. recommended your blog and I enjoy reading the topics. This one was easy to think through & take in. One thing I can do(with His help ) is spend 10 minuts in the morning w/ Him. Self Control is an important topic and can have such a positive impact on our lives if we give our desires and wants over to Jesus. There’s such freedom in doing that.
Dear Elizabeth,
Thank you SO much for blessing me with your words. Karen M. is a sweetheart! I just love her. I am grateful that she passed on my blog to you and I am grateful that it is encouraging you. You are right, there is so much freedom in completely surrendering to Christ. It’s so hard to do sometimes, and that’s why I was led to write some simple steps that would hopefully help others.
Again, thank you for commenting. It means a lot to me.
Lord bless you~
At one time, I thought self-control meant using my self-will to accomplish what I thought was good. Now I know that is the opposite of God’s meaning. Self-control means counting our fleshly desires and passions as dead–letting the Holy Spirit take control. Your suggestions are right on. First I must desire God’s will, then hand my will over to Him. Like all of God’s ways, this is simple to understand and a constant struggle to do. Thanks for sharing this sweet reminder. I appreciate the practical applications you offer.
Arlene, thanks for responding to this blog post on self-control. It’s so challenging at times to die to our fleshly desires, isn’t it? Allowing the Holy Spirit to take over isn’t as easy as it sounds. That’s why I thought some simple baby steps would help others to surrender to Him. Thanks for your consistent support of my writings Arlene. I really appreciate you:)