Shine Like Stars: Devotions From Time of GraceNäide

A Lifestyle That Shines: God's stars are self-controlled

Are you impulsive? Do you come home from shopping trips with four times the amount of stuff you planned to buy? Do you plan to have one drink with friends and end up having three?

One of the reasons parenting is so exhausting is that children resist having to think, plan, and say no to themselves. It is so much easier to slide through their days doing whatever comes naturally. "Naturally" usually involves leaving mounds of clothes lying around and homework undone.

Lots of grown-ups are really big children inside. It is the easy thing to wait for other people to motivate you. Here is how a Christ-like star thinks: "The grace of God . . . teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:11,12).

Did you catch the key? It is God's grace. The way we lead other people, and ourselves, to grow in self-control and personal discipline is not by making more rules. It is by absorbing God's unconditional love and by letting his power flow through us. It is by basking in God's high opinion of ourselves and then living up to that honor. It is by letting go of past failures through Jesus' complete forgiveness. It is by believing that our efforts today matter and that tomorrow will be better still.

By grace.