Jesus had the disciplines of prayer, fasting, thankfulness, sacrifice, giving, submission, service, stewardship, perseverance, self-control, worship, and love.
This week we look at perseverance and self-control.
Perseverance:
A good definition would be the ability to keep doing something despite opposition or difficulty achieving your goal.
Rom. 5:3-4 And not only that but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope.
The word for perseverance means to stay cheerful or hopeful. So many times, I see young people and old sometimes just giving up. It is different for each person, and there might be a zillion reasons why they get to the point where enough is enough. But, we all have been there and might experience it again in the future. So what does it mean to persevere?
Tribulations produce perseverance. There is no other way to learn to push through the hard stuff. I believe your attitude has a lot to do with it. Can we stay sweet in the trail of bitterness?
There is a blessing at the end of each trail. If only to develop our character, it is still worth the effort. People tend to forgive you if you do something wrong, but when you have a character flaw, people tend to hold onto it. As a result, more people shipwreck their testimony with a bad character than anything else.
God allows our trials and temptations so that we can learn to endure and build our character. Think about Job. Remember that God always has restoration in mind. James writes about him.
James 5:11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
Peter helps us to understand this point more clearly.
2Pet. 1:5-8 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Can you see the process? Perseverance is part of the steps that makes us fruitful in the knowledge of Christ. When the circumstances get tough, the tough get going. What does it take to get you to give up?
Self-control:
It is one of the fruits of the Spirit. But unfortunately, so many people have issues because their life is out of control. They do not exercise restraint regarding relationships, food, exercise, hobbies, work, and even ministry.
Gal. 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law.
The last person I had the privilege to lead to Christ before we immigrated from South Africa, I used this verse to share with him. His life was a mess, and he had diabetes. So he would eat the food he knew was not helping him. Finally, he said he needed Jesus to help him. So I shared the Gospel with him because he understood that he needed salvation as much as he required self-control.
One of the things Paul warns us about is what things would look like at the end of time. When I see how much the world is pushing their agenda to allow people to dishonor their bodies amongst each other in all kinds of vile sexual acts, I know a generation without self-control. Truth is opposed, shunned, and even vilified as hate speech because people feel the need to live without control.
Living without self-control leads to a myriad of other problems. Throwing off restraints opens the door for the depravity of man to lead us on a downward spiral from where there is no coming back.
2Tim. 3:1 But know this that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
As Christians, we have the fruit of the Spirit, but we also have the Spirit himself – Rom 8:9. As Paul says it, the Spirit leads us: decently and in order. There is order in God’s Kingdom. There is order in the Church. There is order in families and order in ministry. We have no excuse for being out of order or out of control. Self-control is what sets us apart from the world. Self-control empowers us to control the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye.
Some of us need to control our temper. Some of us need to control our thoughts. Some of us need to hold our tongue. But, we could all do better with this discipline.
I pray that you heard my heart. No condemnation in this, just conviction.
