OVERCOMERS With the Fruit of the SpiritSample

 Self-Control: The Restraint that Releases  

  In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul describes the works of the flesh and they all have one thing in common — they reject restraint and resolutely abandon self-control. It is self-control that empowers us to deny the allure of the world, defy the desires of the flesh, and resist the temptations of the devil. But it doesn’t stop there, as this ripening fruit nourishes in our soul, it emboldens us to walk the Spirit, and thus, oppose the works of the flesh. 

Let’s be clear, this is not us resisting the acts of the flesh, it is God, the Holy Spirit in us exercising His self-control and His Lordship over our lives! God wants His people to be matchless. They are redeemed, so let them live redeemed lives. They are His workmanship, let them look like it. They are new creatures, let them act as such. 

Self-control is a Christian essential — a distinctive! Without it the appetites of the flesh break through and besiege our lives just as Proverbs 25:28 describes, “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” We are literally children of God instead of children of men. And as we walk in the Spirit, we can live on the level of the supernatural instead of the natural, following spiritual rather than fleshly desires — for we live in the Spirit instead of the flesh. Paul admonished us to, “…walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16). As we do, the Spirit’s self-control will grow fragrant and strong in our lives, restraining the flesh with its destructive passions, and releasing the power and life of God that we might “work while it is still day.”