Articles7 Ways to
Get Control of Yourself, Part 1by Varn Brown
Printable Version
Yes, you did read it right. I could have titled this column “7 Ways
to Gain More Self-Control” but I didn’t think you would come in for
the reading. Now that I have hopefully aroused your curiosity,
on-with our study of the eight virtues required to make our calling
sure.
The question "How can I be sure of my calling?" is so
far one of the most popular queries to our ministry. We have been
developing a series of tips on How to Make Your Calling Sure. If you
have ever asked this question or had someone ask you, please know
that it’s a valid question. Otherwise the Apostle Peter would not
have told us, "Be diligent with proving that you really are called
and chosen by the Lord. He went on to say “Give all diligence to
exercising and developing His virtues so that you may be effective
and productive in your gifts and calling.” (2 Peter 1:2-10)
After exercising the third virtue of our study knowledge, develop
self-control. We live in a world of steadily decreasing
self-control. The numbers of road rage incidents have steadily
increased over the years. According to experts, more than half of
U.S. adults are over-weight. Many suffer from lack of control in
eating habits. Drug abuse and overdose runs rampant in our societies
creating a dangerous climate for our children. On that note, we as
Christians are called to grow in self-control in an increasingly out
of control world. To encourage you in the call, I’ve come up with 7
ways to grow in self-control: Allow the Holy Spirit to rule, keep
control of your body, maintain a heart ready to repent, control your
temper, honor God with your body, control your mouth and live your
life growing in Christ.
To gain self-control more and more, do this:
Allow the Holy Spirit to rule: The Holy Spirit will help you
develop the fruit of temperance or self-control. Allowing the Holy
Spirit to lead and even dictate to what you should and should not do
will rein in areas you lack control in. For example, my natural
nature is to stay up late and surf until I get sleepy. But after 10
the standard in T.V. programming drops even lower. So to avoid
getting into trouble watching stuff I shouldn’t, I have to exercise
self-control and turn off the television at 10. May be there’s an
area the Holy Spirit has been calling you to grow in self-control
for your own good. Go ahead allow Him to rule and grow in
self-control.
Keep control of your body: Don’t allow self (your body) to do
whatever it wants, whenever it wants. The Proverbial writer
describes a person lacking control like this, “Losing self-control
leaves you as helpless as a city without a wall.” Pr. 25:28<p> As
ministers, Earma and I believe in living a fasted lifestyle and
being available to the Holy Spirit to pray and fast whenever he
calls. But apart from that as a regular family and a part of keeping
control of our bodies and minds, we annually fast from 7 to 21 days
television and/or junk food, desserts and heavy meats. I know this
concept is new to some and to those deeply spiritual I can hear you
thinking, “That’s not really a fast…” But wait before you judge, let
me tell you what God did during one of our times of light fasting.
TESTIMONY: Our youngest teen-aged son Khrys had just arrived for the
summer so Earma and I were thinking, it wouldn’t be right to pick
him up from the airport and require him to fast. So we told him
about the fast but left the decision with him. A few days afterwards
he was down stairs watching our big screen television when we heard
a loud bang and smelled smoke. Something had blown out in it. God
had other plans. Without the T.V. he was forced to go on the fast
with us. All of his young life he had suffered from periodic
migraines that would leave him moaning and seeking relief in a dark
room. A few days into the fast he said he sat up in bed and it felt
like something lifted off of him. He started reading the Bible for
the first time as a young Christian and has had no migraines since.
If you don’t do this already, I encourage to you to structure
your own family time of Keeping Control of Your Body fast. Believe
me during the Technology Age its not that easy to simply turn it off
for awhile. But the rewards are great in self-control and who knows
God may just do something wonderful during your time away from the
Tube. He’s no respecter of persons, you know.
Maintain a heart ready to repent: The Psalmist wrote, “Keep
your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.” Ps.
19:13 God has given us the amazing gift of choice but with that gift
comes responsibility to choose rightly. Through Adam’s fall and the
sinful nature we all inherited it’s not always easy to say, “Not my
will but thy will be done” to God. It takes humility to pray a
prayer like the Psalmist. But we can do it. Join me as I commit to
keeping my heart ready to repent so that no sin may rule over me.
You’ll discover submitting your will to God’s will bring His
presence, His plan and His purpose to grow you in not only
self-control but all the fruits of the Spirit.
Control your temper: Some of us almost as a
badge of honor are caught saying, “I have a horrible temper but it’s
just the way my whole family is.” That excuse will no longer work
and it’s no badge of honor, if you are allowing your anger to rule.
My pastor has recently been preaching about anger. He instructs
there are some things we should have righteous anger about. It helps
stir us to act when we should. Things like the fact that several
young men dragged and decapitated a retarded black man. It did and
it should have stirred a righteous anger among the public. Or that a
young man murdered and threw out in the lake his wife and unborn
child.
Back to personal anger, sometimes in our society we are taught to
squelch it, hide it, and get rid of it; anything but examine why we
are angry. If your temper has been running out of control seek God
for healing and begin to look for a root cause. I have discovered in
my own life as I followed the trail to why I felt angry it led to
unforgiveness, fear, unhealed hurts and wounds that I never dealt
with. Get alone with the Holy Spirit and decide as I did to follow
the trail of anger to the root cause. You’ll discover with the Holy
Spirit beyond the (root cause) lies victory and more
self-control.
I encourage you in your quest to develop
self-control. I know with all my heart, as we exercise more and more
self-control God will be able to effectively use us as instruments
of His grace to others. See you next time with a few final thoughts
on self-control.
Printable Version
Author Bio:
Most leaders nead a strong team of support. Your leadership should
have one too! Varn is President and Co-Founder of Armorbearers
International, Inc. who offers help with designing strong teams of
support for God’s leaders. Subscribe to the free ezine “The
Armorbearer Coach” at
http://www.armorbearers.net/newsletter.htm or visit host
site at
http://www.armorbearers.net for other insightful articles
and resources.
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