You know I care about helping people find a “self to live with” through an understanding of who we’ve been made to be in Christ.
But I was quite surprised to discover the scriptures use the word self quite a bit in the negative–not the positive. For example, you’ll find words like: self-confident, self-seeking, self-condemned, self-sufficiency, self-imposed, and self-willed.
Yuck.
Those are not words I want God (or anyone else) to use in describing me.
Even the word self-confident is dangerous because although most of us need more of this, it should never outweigh our confidence in Christ. I want to be Christ-confident because it is “Christ in me, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) that I seek –not my own glory.
But there’s one more word in scripture that uses self quite a bit, and it’s one that will help us: SELF-CONTROL.
Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” It’s good to remember that if we have an abundance of these qualities in our life, we are walking closely with God.
But… if we’re lacking in any of these, it’s proof we are living for ourselves (see the list of ugly words above).
But self-control is a quality God likes. We could say it’s a word we need to embrace.
So what does it mean to have self-control as a fruit of the Spirit?
- You are allowing the real you on the inside to call the shots.
- You are more aware of who you are in Christ, than who you are without Him.
- You’re not wasting time believing the devil’s lies.
The real “you” on the inside is simply “Christ in you.” Remember what the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
You are not that person from your past anymore. God has filled your heart with His Spirit and made you brand-new. This means you have the ability to draw upon this truth and respond to life’s challenges through Him, instead of through selfish ambition, conceit, or false confidence.
Secondly, the more you spend time in God’s Word, the more He will help you see yourself in Him. I always try to remember the “In-You-Truths” (or we could say the “Trust-in Self-Truths”) that the Bible warns us about:
Without Jesus, I AM nothing (Galatians 6:3), I KNOW nothing (1 Corinthians 8:2), I HAVE nothing (1 Corinthians 4:7), and I can DO nothing (John 15:5). In other words, I need Jesus! And through Him, and Him alone, I can confidently say: I am somebody! I know all things! I have more than enough! And I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!
And lastly, finding a self to live with means I don’t waste my time listening to, much less believing, the devil’s lies.
Think about how the devil treated Jesus in the wilderness. Three times, Satan said to Him, “IF you are the Son of God…” (Matthew 4). Three times! If he was bold enough to challenge Jesus three times, how many times do you think he’s going to challenge you and I?
IF you are a child of God…
IF God is for you, then…
IF Christ is in you, then why…
Don’t listen to that nonsense! The devil is simply trying to get you off-track. And if he can’t do it through low self-esteem, then he’ll do it through over-confidence in SELF. He knows if he can get you to have more confidence in yourself than in Jesus, he’s got you whipped.
So, I want to encourage you today to find yourself in Christ. It’s okay to be confident in Him (in you)! The challenges in this world require us to be bold for God– but it’s only our confidence in Him, and an acceptance of who He’s made us to be, that will overcome this world!
