EVENING REFLECTION: “Temperance (Self-Control)”

CONTRIBUTOR: Shirley Joy

Temperance (Self-Control) is a fruit of the Spirit.

Self-control is a decision that you make.  This decision comes from renewing your mind with the Word of God. Bear in mind that every decision taken in life has consequences.

The Word of God tells us of two (2) roads:

1. The broad road that leads to destruction, and
2. The narrow road that leads to life.

Temperance is on the narrow road.

1) On our own we cannot manifest self-control. It requires a full surrender of our will to God’s will.

Our redemption through Jesus being crucified at the cross has placed us in Him. We are now a new creation in Christ Jesus. It is in Him we live, move and have our being. We are His temple, and He is the head of our temple. We have therefore to surrender our minds, thoughts our eyes, ears, and mouth to His Lordship.

2) We have to practice God’s presence 24/7 and ask ourselves the tough questions.

• Are my thoughts pleasing God?
• Is what I’m watching pleasing God?
• Is God pleased with what I’m listening to?
• Do my words please and honour God or is my tongue out of control?

Temperance is like a fence that controls self. The Holy Spirit builds this fence around us but He needs our cooperation and commitment for the fence to be built and remain strong around us.

If we decide to go outside this fence of temperance (self-control) it will have painful consequences for us.

We find David & Bathsheba’s story in 2 Samuel 11. As a result of this encounter, the prophet Nathan visits with David in 2 Samuel 12:14 and he said, “But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” David had to face this painful consequence.

By Nathan’s visit, David was reminded (and so are we) that God knows everything and sees everything. We cannot lock God out of our room, or our thoughts (mind). He knows everything.

It is out of this serious consequence that David wrote Psalm 51. He was seeking God’s forgiveness.

Our God sees the end from the beginning. The finished work at the cross, including sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, allows us to bear this fruit of Temperance.

We need to stay within the temperance (self-control) fence so that we may not cause by our actions persons who do not know God as Saviour to blaspheme God and treat God like a “poppy show” because of our actions. Non-Christians are always ready to shout out in a chorus, “See what (s)he did and (s)he said (s)he is a Christian?”

We are always going to be tempted to jump the fence and deal with matters our own way. As each of us know the areas in our lives where we are prone to lose control, let us ask the Holy Spirit to build the fence of self-control higher in these areas so it would be more difficult for us to jump over and bring shame and damage not only to our reputation but also to the name of God.

Sometimes we seem to forget that the devil is seeking to destroy us. Be very mindful that he is always walking around our fence of self-control looking for a weak point where he can get us to sin. He will always try to “bait” us in our area of weaknesses. So if we are hot tempered, he will use someone to get us angry so we lose our self-control.

We should be alert and not take Satan’s bait as one bad decision can have lifelong consequences.

In 2 Samuel 12:11-13, the prophet Nathan said to David, “Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you and he will live with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel. Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.” 5 minutes of looking at Bathsheba brought lifelong consequences to David’s household.

Let us …

• Stay behind the fence of temperance (self-control) and guard our hearts.
• Contain ourselves in our speech. Let us be careful what we say because these words can scar for life.
• Be careful and alert in our weaknesses so that we are aware when we are being baited to come out of self-control and yield to weakness (whatever that is).
• Constantly pray about your weaknesses so that we can be strengthen by God, in order to exhibit self-control.

Temperance (self-control) is necessary in all areas of our life. It’s not just confined to temper or speech. Some of us need it for our diets – the food that we eat could cause harm, but we eat it anyway.

Take temperance (self-control) seriously. Lifetime consequences are at stake if we do not practice self-control. He is the vine and we are the branches and we must let our light shine so that others may see Christ in us. And most importantly, we do not want to grieve the Holy Spirit who is right there with us.

Be very alert!