Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
8/24/2021
The Battle for Self Control!
The Hebrews were promised land… “The Promise Land”…. but had to take it by force, one town at a time. God went before them. Each city was a gift and a fulfilled promise from God. So we are promised gifts… One is the Fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control, yet we also must take it by force. According to chapter 5 of the Epistle to the Galatians: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The very concept of self-control implies a battle between a divided self. It clearly says that our self produces desires we should not gratify but instead control. In Luke 9:23 it says “deny ourselves and take up our cross daily”
The path that leads to heaven is narrow and strewn with suicidal temptations to abandon the way. So Jesus says in Luke 13:24 “strive to enter through the narrow door.” Strive means “to devote serious effort or energy” The opposite is to lay down and do nothing. Ignore it. surrender, succumb and withdraw. But it means even more than that.
The Greek word to strive is an Agōnizesthe. In which we get the English word to agonize. Look at Matthew 5:29 “if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away”. There is evidently a fierceness to self-control. Look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:12 “the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force.”
Are you laying hold of the kingdom fiercely? Paul says that Christians should exercise self-control like the Greek athletes, only our goal is eternal, not temporal.
Everyone who competes in the games agonizes and exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable reward, but we seek the imperishable reward of eternal bliss with Jesus.
1 Corinthians 9:25 NASB says “I pommel my body and subdue it” The bottom line is self-control is saying no to sinful desires even when it hurts. It means saying NO to the panic attack that comes to some when they are overwhelmed. God is never into fear.
But the bottom line is you can’t just say no. You say no by faith in the superior power and pleasure of Christ. The difference between worldly self-control and godly self-control is crucial. If we exercise self-control by faith in Christ’s superior power and pleasure, Christ will get the glory and we will be delivered.
Fundamental to the Christian view of self-control is… that it is a gift. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit: Galatians 5:22 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and self-control.”
Paul says in Colossians 1:29 “I labor, striving/agonizing according to his power, which mightily works within me.” It says he agonizes by the power of Christ, not his own. And he says in Romans 8:13 “if, by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” And look at Zechariah 4:6 “not by might, nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord of host”. We must be fierce. But not by our might.
Lastly, how does the spirit produce this fruit of self-control?. By instructing us in the superior preciousness of grace, and enabling us to see and savor…that is trust,…all that God is for us…in Jesus. Titus 2:11–12 “the grace of God has appeared, training us to renounce, worldly passions, in the present age”.
When we really see and believe what God is for us by grace through Jesus Christ, the power of wrong desires is broken. The power of overwhelming emotions is broken. Therefore the fight for self-control is a fight of faith. 1 Timothy 6:12 “fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to what you were called.
it is almost like the Holy Spirit is hammering this point home. We are so weak in the flesh. We are so watered down by political correctness and what others do and might say against us, that we’ve become paralyzed and inept at resisting and fighting our fleshly desires.
Lord help me to see that your truth is the only truth. Help me see the negativity I keep speaking about myself or my situation and building castle walls of fear, defeat, and anger all around my life and it overflows into everyone I love and want to protect. Lord, only you can protect me from me. Only by your Holy Spirit can I overthrow the wiles of the enemy. Lord increase my faith…help me to use “your words” of power to quench every fiery dart of the enemy and his lies. I am tired of being an emotional cripple. Help me to agonize through the pain and proclaim you are King over all my adversaries.
Nothing is bigger than my Lord, Jesus Christ.
There’s Nothing That Our God Can’t Do – Passion Lyric Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI8ji2EjGE4
