It Begins With Us

Self-control

Govern thyself then you will be able to govern the world.

Source Unknown

2 Tim 3:1-5
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. NASU

Robert Browning, a British Poet, had this to say of Self-control; “When the fight begins within himself, a man's worth something.” What exactly is he saying? Well, first I think that he is saying that in all of us there is a battle raging. It is a battle that we are born with and one that each of us must fight, lest in the end who we are, and what we are, is wasted.

Paul says to us in Col 3:1-2, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” This is the battle isn’t it to be focused on things that are above us, and to “keep seeking” the higher things, not the base things of the world that, face it, we are easily drawn into.

Isn’t it pitiful the way that we judge others and their shortcomings, yet knowing within that we still have a way to go? Isn’t this much of what Paul is speaking of when he warns of what we can be without Christ, brutal, treacherous, reckless, and without self-control. Paul tells us how to avoid this trap in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

The answer comes from living for Christ, we are to be about His business, and not ours, and it could come no plainer than this; Matt 16:24-25 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Simply put, life really isn’t all about us, it’s all about Jesus, and it’s all about others. For us to enjoy the freedom we have in Christ, we must first learn to maintain control of ourselves…God Bless.

Pastor William