Francine Herrington, Florida
God’s plan for our
lives is to make us prosperous. This
does not only mean financial gain. Actually
it starts with our spiritual life and flows down to our physical being. This means that there is a battle to be
fought. It is the battle of the mind. Many of us are plagued by worry even though
we hate to admit it. We get anxious
about our health, our finances, our jobs, our families and friends, etc.,
etc. etc. We worry that something bad will happen to us
or to our loved ones We get plagued by
negative thoughts such as, ‘we are unlovable people or we don’t have what it
takes to become successful.
These are lies that have
been implanted in us by
God has given us a
wonderful tool to capture our destructive thinking patterns called ‘self
control’. This takes practice for it is
easy to lose. It is putting a guard on
our thought life, our emotions as well as our responses. For
everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love
others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and
ravage each other, watch out - in no time at all you will be annihilating each
other, and where will your precious freedom be then? My counsel is this: Live
freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the
compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us
that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible
with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot
live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any
given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the
erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? It is obvious what kind of life develops out
of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a
stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless
grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness;
cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal
temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives;
small-minded and lopsided pursuits the vicious habit of depersonalizing
everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly
parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned
you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's
kingdom. But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives,
much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard - things like affection for
others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a
willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart,
and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find
ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life,
able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in
bringing this about; it only gets in the way.
Galatians
Self -control is
capturing every condescending thought that will destroy our self-esteem. We need to remember that when we are hurt, we
may not mean it but we will tend to hurt others. If we believe that we are losers we will shut
ourselves away from others because we don’t want them to agree with the way we
feel. God tells us how to handle our
thinking patterns. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever
is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
admirable--if anything is excellent or admirable think about such things.
— Phil. 4:8
