Monday 18 November 2019

The fruit of the Spirit is self-control

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. – Galatians 5.22-25

Forgive me. I just realised that I left out a part of the fruit of the Spirit a week or so ago, but its too important to skip.

The fruit of the Spirit is…self-control, or temperance. One evidence of the fruit of the Spirit is that we are not out of control.

When I think of ‘out of control’ I think of children. I love them and I especially love my grandchildren, but sometimes they all can get out of control. That’s because they are young and immature. You expect it.

We don’t have the excuse for being out of control though. We are not children whose emotions overpower or reason.   ‘I couldn’t help myself’ juts doesn’t work.  If we bear the fruit of the Spirit we don’t lose control.

‘I just can’t handle it any more. I am going to lose the head’ may very well be true – but we don’t have to handle it. We can rest on the Holy Spirit and His power and might to give us self-control. Not losing it in tough situations it truly a mark that He is in control and not us.

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