Self control

 

Just finished the book by Charles Swindoll, So You Want To Be Like Christ?  It explains the characteristics of Christ and how to reinforce them in my life. 

 Galatians 5:22-23   God’s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways. CEV

He quotes Richard J. Foster who explains how Christ showed the greatest examples of self control.

“Have you ever noticed the number of times Jesus refused to use power?  He refused to dazzle people by jumping off the pinnacle of the temple (Matthew 4:5).  He rejected the temptation to make more “wonder bread” to validate His ministry (John 6:26).  He refused to do many wonderful works in His own hometown because of the unbelief of the people (Luke 4:16-27).  He said no to the Pharisees when they demanded He give a sign to prove He was the Messiah (Matthew 12:38).  At His arrest, Jesus said He could have summoned a whole army of angels but He did not (Matthew 26:53).

On the topic of self control, Swindoll explains the different areas such as verbal constraint, emotional, mental, and moral.  In his own life he has found that a 3 second pause can make all the difference.  During that pause, a prayer of surrender goes up to God releasing his struggle to Him and asking Him to take control of the situation.  Sounds so simple to do but in the heat of the moment how many times have I just blurted out or done the first thing that comes to my mind.  Too many to count. 

“…Surrender has somehow become so beautiful…take control”