Self Control

I am sitting in a very clean living room on a very comfy lazyboy. My sweet, sweet roommate Martha spent all yesterday cleaning our house, and it looks and smells wonderful! I live in a very large house so cleaning the whole house is quite a task. I had a bowl of corn flakes this morning with strawberries. I find it amazing that those little fruit can change the flavor of the whole cereal. Yum!!

Anyway...I just started a new chapter in Jerry Bridges' book called "Lack of Self-Control." I guess compared to the other sins that I have read about, this is one that I won't deny I struggle with. Some of this areas of struggle are pretty personal, so I won't post them on here, but I did want to share some of his insight with you this morning.

First off, what is self-control? I have always defined this as saying "no" to something I don't need. Bridges defines it as "prudent control of one's desires, cravings, impulses, emotions, and passions." It is not uncommon for unbelievers to exercise self-control in a few areas of their lives, but as a believer, we are to have self-control in all areas of our life. How do we get to that point? By continually meditating on the words of God and through prayer.

Rabbit trail here: For a long time I would not pray for things (changes in my behavior) because I did not want to be change even though I knew I was in sin. Within the last couple years, I have realized that I can ask God to give me the DESIRE to want to change. Knowing that really changed how I viewed my relationship with God. Instead of knowing that I needed to change, but didn't want to and backing away from God, now I know I need to change, even though I don't want to change, I crawl closer to God, and say, "Give me the desire to change from this sin because in all honesty, I like this sin I am in." This was such an "ah ha" moment for me. I didn't feel like I had to fake it for the one person who knew how I was feeling anyway. Soooo liberating!!

Back on track: Even if the area that we are lacking self-control in is a small area, it can greatly weaken our resolve in other more important areas. Self-control can't just cover certain areas of our life; it needs to be consistent throughout.

I am going to get up and go to the gym and exercise my self-control, instead of being lazy all day. I am getting back on track to run my 5k in August.