“¹³And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.” – Deuteronomy 11:13-14 (ESV)

God is very clear to the people the consequences when they follow Him. I am a child of God and therefore I am held to the same consequences when following God. No, I may not have to think about getting the rain for my crops, but I am to simply do the will of God and therefore I will be blessed with that which I do need.

And what if I choose not to obey God?

“¹⁶Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; ¹⁷then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.” – Deuteronomy 11:16-17 (ESV)

It seems to be pretty clear here. When we choose not to obey God, the blessings set aside for us will be significantly limited to the point of our demise. I am charged with obeying and for that obeying I will be blessed beyond anything I could imagine, and when I choose to not obey the Lord, I will be on my own and not provided that which is needed for my long term prosper.

“²⁶See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, ²⁸and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.” – Deuteronomy 11:26-28 (ESV)

God has set me up for success by providing the blessings I need. All I have to do is obey His commandments and I will be provided for in ways that at this moment I may not fully understand, but they are there and all I need do is claim them.

Are you aware of the commandments that God has given to you to obey? What if you were to ignore those commandments? What if you were to obey them, what blessing will you realize?

I find myself daily fighting for what is right. I do what I believe to be the will of God. I am working for God and with that I am blessed to know that God is with me through it all.

“²⁰Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. ²¹Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. ²²But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.” – Exodus 23:20-22 (ESV)

Moses is hearing from God here. He is hearing that God is in the corner of the Israelite people and as they follow Him then they will succeed in all that they set out to accomplish. The people have a choice and that choice will either lead to their destruction or their triumph. Each of these decisions and results may not come for some time. As in with the Israelite people, it was years before they inherited the promised land. They obeyed and were rewarded, but not for quite some time.

I continue to have the same choice each day. If I choose to obey the Lord, then I will be rewarded. If I choose to defy Him, then I will have to suffer the consequences. It may be some time before I realized the result of my choice, and truly, I may not even know at the time why I am experiencing whatever result. What I have to be conscious of is that all of the results in my life are the result of the choices I made.

My choices are for me and for me alone. I choose to obey God or to defy Him. When I choose, I am bound by the results of my choice. When I choose God, He will be in my corner and provide conquest where I need it and for that I have to be ready. I am to continue to obey Him at each turn of my life and for my obedience, I will be rewarded. I have to remember though that the reward may not be right here, right now and therefore I have to continue regardless of the result in the moment.

I am a child of God and as such am an heir in heaven. Thank you God for the salvation you provided to me and for giving me the chance to accept. I choose to obey, know that you are on my side and will fight the battles alongside me as do your will.

When you go into the world, are you aware of the side God fights on? Are you choosing to obey God so that He will be on your side? Will you align yourself with God so that He will be your ally?

Until now, I have been writing of being self-controlled. As I read this morning, I am reminded to teach self-control to others.

“¹But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. ²Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. ³Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, ⁴and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, ⁵to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. ⁶Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.” – Titus 2:1-6 (ESV)

Paul writes to Titus encouraging him and providing wisdom in his work for Christ. Here in Chapter 2 Paul gives Titus guidance in teaching sound doctrine. I notice that Paul does not leave out any demographic. He speaks of men and women, old and new. And with all of them he brings forward the teaching that they should be self-controlled. All should be self-controlled in their approach to life as a follower of Christ.

I am at a point in my life that I study, study, and study. Whether it is how to improve myself, or how to be in better alignment with God, I am committed to continue my growth. One of those areas of growth is in emotional intelligence, and what is key of emotional intelligence is being self-controlled. I am committed to improving my self-control so as to use it in my approach to spreading the gospel and honoring God.

“¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” – Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)

I have accepted the gift of salvation and with that gift God is training me to do His work here in this world. Part of that work is what I do here, sharing my thought and teaching God’s word.

When you are in the world, are you aware that all are to live by the same qualities? Self-control is not just for you, but for those all around you, are you holding them to that standard? Are you working to teach self-control to all with the intention that they use it to further the gospel?

“²Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, ³not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.” – 1 Timothy 3:2-3 (ESV)

Overseer = Leader. You can see here that Paul is providing Timothy with characteristics needed to be the leaders in the church. The one characteristic that stands out to me is “self-controlled”. One must be self-controlled to be an overseer/leader in the church.

Being self-controlled does not mean that we allow others to push us around and we are fully submissive. No, what I see now as I have been studying these past weeks, months, and years is that self-control means that I have to pick my battles and when I do “push back” it is based on facts and the events themselves without bringing emotion into the process. It is that emotion that brings irrational thought and that irrational thought is what gets in the way of the decision making process.

I am by nature a quiet person. I am reserved and usually sit and wait for things to unfold before I engage. I want to make sure that when I do engage it is at a time when I am able to think clearly of the full situation and determine the best for all involved. I will admit that the “best for all” may not be a “win for all”, but it will be the more logical of scenarios and the benefit may not be realized for some time.

The self-controlled are those that will allow failure in the interest of learning. That failure is difficult to take unless one is able to remove the emotion and see the bigger picture of how decisions affect all of those involved. An overseer/leader must have this quality to be sure that the team, church, and God are glorified through the decisions made.

As I look at these and the other qualities of Christians, I am reminded that all of these are in place to bring glory to God the Father. I know it may sound the same and it is the answer that Christians are taught to give when asked why we do things, but isn’t it true that we are placed in this world to glorify God? And as that is true, isn’t it also important that we learn what qualities will give us the greatest chance at success.?

Overseers/Leaders need to have the qualities listed in the verses above. Not for their own sake, but for the sake of those they oversee/lead. Others should see the example of what right looks like as a child of God and that starts with being self-controlled.

What characteristics do you believe make good Overseers/Leaders? Are you living up to the qualities that define the position you are/may be in? Will you be self-controlled in your leadership whether in the world or in the home?

There are many qualities that are instrumental in helping us to avoid falling away from Christ.

“⁵For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 2 Peter 1:5-8 (ESV)

Each of these qualities, as Peter writes, leads to the next and it is important that we observe each of them to maintain and grow our “knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”. I also notice that all these qualities lead to the ultimate quality of our Lord Jesus Chris which is LOVE.

I have studied some of these qualities over the past few years and will continue to study them and others as I look to understand and grow my knowledge each day. With love I have spent a good amount of time studying and have found that whatever the situation or circumstances I find myself in, when I am demonstrating love for those around me, all can be overcome.

I want to be clear and state that just because I love I get everything I want and all is made glorious in my world. What I am referring to is that when I love, all is ultimately overcome by God. He provides the resolutions that are needed and not necessarily the resolutions we are looking for.

I look back at the life of my grandparents and the comfort by which they seemed to have in themselves and their lives. I see how they lived with the simple means and never “wanted” for much of anything other than to have relationships with their family. What I also remember about them is the LOVE they demonstrated at all times. They did for others without expectation of anything in return. They only relaxed when the work was done and then only for a short while until they recognized the chance to demonstrate love again by making coffee for everyone.

I do not want to seem like everything was perfect for my grandparents. For sure they had their struggles, but the key thing was that those struggles were their own and when in the presence of everyone else, the self-control they demonstrated led to the love they shared with each of those around them.

I will be taking the demonstrated advice of my grandparents as I go forward. I will be demonstrating the self-control with will lead to the demonstration of love. My goal is not to be better than others, only to the best that God has intended me to be.

When you look out, are your demonstrating self-control? Are you looking out for yourself by frankly, looking out for the good of everyone around you? Will you demonstrate self-control with the goal of demonstrating love?

“¹But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ²For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” – 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (ESV)

When I read these verses I am taken aback and what I could become, or rather what I am, with maintaining self-control. Paul lines it out and it is up to me to be fully aware daily to avoid as best I can.

I have to believe that man does not set out to be as described in the verses above. I am pretty sure that I do not wake in the morning looking for the opportunity to be abusive, ungrateful, unholy, heartless. I will say that though I may not wake looking for it, as a man and sinner, it is in my nature to gravitate toward those actions and where it starts is with my lack of self-control. Without self-control, I am not able to settle myself into doing the work of God and will simply react to that which is happening around me.

Just above the passage I quoted from 2 Timothy, Paul writes of how we should be acting each day. He outlines the actions that we are to be taking and again, it all starts with maintaining self-control.

“²²So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. ²³Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. ²⁴And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵correcting his opponents with gentleness.” – 2 Timothy 2:22-25 (ESV)

No, Paul does not use the word self-control, however he speak of being gentle. And in order to be gentle one must be deliberate in their actions and if one is deliberate in action then they are demonstrating self-control over their actions. Paul gives the actions of the Lord’s servant, me, in verse 22 and further explains through those verses that immediately follow. I am held to the standard of living as the Lord’s servant and in doing so must adhere to the actions outlined and that all begins with my deliberate self-controlled actions.

I am encouraged when reading Paul’s letters to Timothy as they are written not just to Timothy, but to me as well. I am given instructions as to how to be a Christian and what actions I should be taking as well as those that I should be avoiding. It is up to me to continue my study of Gods’ Word through my deliberate action so that I am able to maintain my self-control and avoid the actions that are natural to me as a man and sinner.

What actions are you taking each day? Are you aware of the self-control needed so that others will see God in you? Are you willing to take deliberate self-controlled actions and avoid those that are natural to you as a sinner?

I have traits that are used for the spreading of the Gospel.

“⁵I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. ⁶For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, ⁷for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” – 2 Timothy 1:5-7 (ESV)

Paul, speaking to Timothy, reminds him of the Christlike character traits that he has been entrusted. Timothy had been raised rightly and only needs to be reminded of those characteristics that were instilled in him from the start.

I to have been entrusted with traits of Christ from those that came before me. And for those I must remember to be grateful. For, whereas here in this world, my mother and grandmother instilled those in me, I have to know where they ultimately came from. Where did they get them, but from those that came before them and from their constant study and trusting of God and His Word. I know what it is and how I should be acting here in this world. I have/had the examples of what right looks like and it is up to me to follow those examples in my walking of this world. Now, I may have been introduced to the traits by those close to me here in this world, but my understanding and reminder of those are from my constant study and trusting of God and His Word.

I have/had examples to follow here in this world, and I have the ultimate example in Christ as to how to use the traits given to me by God. Jesus demonstrated those traits each day in His walk in this world, “power and love and self-control”. He came before me to show me what right looks like and how I am to use the gifts He gave, and for that, I am grateful. It is up to me to continue using the gifts given by God to spread His gospel.

Who was your example of what right looks like? Were they demonstrating the traits of Christ? Were you aware that they instilled those traits in you, and that God gave them to you?

“⁸I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; ⁹likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, ¹⁰but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.” – 1 Timothy 2:8-10 (ESV)

This passage is often misconstrued in that somehow men are those that are called on to be the bringers of the gospel and women should be somewhere in the background supporting them. That could not be further from the truth in the way I understand it.

Paul is bringing attention to what is the important part in spreading the gospel, just that, spreading the gospel. The idea is to not draw attention to “ourselves” but to the gospel and the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. If I were to display “anger or quarreling” I am taking the attention off of Christ, who is love, and putting myself on stage for all to see. Likewise, women that get all dressed up with fancy outer coverings are drawing attention to themselves and away from Christ who was modest and simple in His approach.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe that I must be passionate with my love and devotion to Christ, and I should dress my best for Him. I have only to be careful that my passion and dress are for His glory and not to make me look or appear to be greater than I am, a sinner in need of grace. My actions and appearance should be to draw attention to Christ and not me. It is a sin for me to do anything that may cause another man to stumble and if those men or women are looking at me, then it is difficult for them to see Christ in me.

I believe we all should bring others to Christ and our actions and appearances have the chance to do just that or distract them. I choose to bring them to Christ and therefor will exercise self-control in my actions and appearance to be sure that others are seeing Christ in me.

Your actions and appearance, what do they say about you? What do they say about your relationship with Christ? Are you self-controlled so that the world will see Christ in you and not be looking at you?

When I read this mornings passage as I study the words “self-control”, I was taken aback by the idea that with self-control, there is no law. Now, I have to say that just reading that and with things taken just at the words therein, I am not getting the full story.

“¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control: against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:18 & 22-23 (ESV)

And there you have it. Not just that self-control to be out from under the law, but led by the fruit of the Spirit and all nine of those characteristics. I am to be bound by those characteristics and when doing so, I will find myself above the law.

Now I know that as I live here in the world, there are laws that I must abide by as a member of society. What I need to remember is that as I live the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit, the law of man pales in comparison to the model and discipline I have under the law of God. Gods Law is far more stringent than that of man.

If for some reason there is a conflict between the law of man and the law of God, I will err on the side of Gods Law. In doing so, I fully accept any punishment that man may give for the punishment for breaking the law of God and disappointing Him is far worse than anything that man would do.

Paul was imprisoned and eventually killed for disobeying mans law in order to follow the law of God. Whereas spending years imprisoned and being killed are not considered desirable, Paul gladly took the punishment as opposed to giving in just to satisfy man. He demonstrated the nine characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit including, but not limited to, self-control and rose above the law of man to bring glory to God.

What laws are you focused on adhering to on a daily basis? Are you looking to live by the fruit of the Spirit each day? Will you be able to count yourself above the law as you demonstrate your self-control?

“²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. ²⁵Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. ²⁷But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” – 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (ESV)

It is fascinating at the discipline of athletes, musicians, artists, and frankly anyone that has become great at what they do. Their greatness is largely based on the work that they put into their craft. Yes, some are naturally gifted and things come easy to them, however those are the anomaly and the percentage of those that put in the work far out number the anomalies.

I have to remember that my walk with Christ is not a cake walk and I have to work continuously at it. I want to great in the eyes of Christ and the only way for me to get there (though I know that I will never reach the pinnacle) I have to remain disciplined.

I speak to my boys about the things that they do and what I say to them often is to be deliberate in their actions. I remind them not to go after things without thinking them through and understanding the greater consequences of their actions. Yes, there are times when things come so fast and furious that the decision making process is a bit muddied and the deliberate actions we take are left to chance, those times should be met with self-control and discipline based on what is known and on previous experience with fast decisions before.

I have been left to do the work of God here in this world and in doing so, I owe it to Him to give it my best. My best is to “discipline my body and keep it under control” so that my actions will be in the best interest of the work of Christ and not of my own idea of winning or losing. I must remain deliberate and exercise self-control in all of my dealings to be sure that I am working for Christ.

When you are in situations, how do you approach them? Are you able to sit and work exclusively for Christ in all that you do? Are you being deliberate and exercising self-control in all of your dealings?