But the fruit of the Spirit is …. self-control. Galations 5:22-23.

It’s not particularly necessary to define “self-control.” Of all the virtues we’ve studied to date, it is, perhaps, the most self-explanatory. In Greek it’s the word, “egkratia” which means – self-control (it is also translated as temperance, but that word would need some defining in this day and age!).

Control of one’s self. Self-control. I have so many words that I’ve been trying to say about all of this. I’ve typed and erased for several nights in a row. So, I’m ditching those words for this: this week, let’s choose something good and do it, repeatedly.

Here’s the thing: God has been teaching me in deeper, more thorough ways, how the mind, body and soul are all connected. Train yourself to be godly. (1 Tim. 4:7). Boom. The mandate is laid out there in black and white.

But, how?

I can’t tell you in the next 4 days all the ways…Not that I “know” all the ways. Really, I think God wants us to live the rest of our lives here on earth learning all ways in which we can train ourselves to be godly. I’m going to spare us the long dissertation on the classical spiritual disciplines and just say that, the first Christians followed Jesus’ practices of Bible study and memorization, prayer, solitude, silence, fasting, simplicity, celebration, giving and confession (there were others, I’m sure). For a more in-depth look at these classical tools to use as “training” in godliness, I recommend Richard Foster’s Celebration of the Disciplines or for a less in-depth but more accessible look, the IF:Gathering has a recent Bible study on the disciplines.  In essence, what the classical spiritual disciplines do is offer us a way to do something to work with the work God is working in us. To participate in our sanctification.

Briefly, the theological (psychological and philosophical) underpinnings of these disciplines is that, before we are transformed into a new creation by acceptance of Jesus’ substitutionary death for us, we have repeatedly done sinful things which have, in turn become habit and that habit has, in turn, become character. While our true nature after conversion is that of Christ, our thoughts and actions continue along the same path that we have carved out and, through the help of the Spirit and our own work, we can form new habit and character. (For an in-depth look at the theological, philosophical and psychological underpinnings as I’ve boiled them down, Dallas Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines is helpful –also, I’m not sure I completely understand or buy into everything he concludes there, but it’s very interesting).

Boiled down for our purposes here, what I think God is prompting for this week’s study on self-control is to focus on one area of our life and diligently bring it before Him. It can be an area where sin has been sticking to your soul. It can be an area where you have felt God prompting a step in faith.

This is where it gets tricky. Foster says, in effect, we should approach the disciplines with an experimental attitude. The disciplines are not the point – the point is to deepen our walk with God, heighten our sensitivity to the Spirit, abide more fully. To do anything else is empty, poisonous, legalistic ritual.

Self-control as a fruit of the Spirit is not legalism. It is the freedom to love and live in the fullness of life that Christ’s sacrifice grants.

So, I encourage you to take at least five minutes to sit before God with the question of where He is focusing you this week. Where does He desire for you to work? And then, ask Him how He desires for you to work it out – train in godliness in this area this week. This is where it gets tricky that I haven’t gone into a minor (or major!) discussion on each of the classical disciplines and the really neat spiritual disciplines I’ve run across over the last year.

So, let me say that basically anything good or abstaining from something that’s not actually bad can be a spiritual discipline. I suggest that, it is helpful to have a connection between the things the Lord has prompted you about. For example: • Maybe the area is pride – perhaps you could abstain from blow drying and curling your hair or wearing make-up, or perhaps you could pray as you go through the habit of getting yourself ready for the day, remembering Colossions 3:12-14, making the act a clothing of yourself in God’s compassion, patience, love and kindness to be worn in your spirit. • Maybe the area is anxiety – if so, perhaps you could spend just 5 minutes a day silent before the Lord, quieting your soul before Him, allowing His presence to bathe you; or maybe you could spend 5 minutes a day memorizing a scripture like Psalm 139:14, Zeph. 3:17, Matthew 7:7-11… • Maybe the area is prayer – perhaps you can take a 10 minute walk/run by yourself everyday and dedicate the time to praying, or even pray for your family when you do the dishes or your laundry – asking the Lord to give them spiritual nourishment or clothe them in the armor of God. • Perhaps God is prompting you to step out of your comfort zone with the people He has brought into your life and He wants you to send a quick note or text message to someone every day or attempt to arrange a time to invite someone to spend time with you every day.

I suggest that, if your “discipline” is something that will require your family to change their routine a little bit, that you tell them a bit about what you are doing so that they can encourage, not accidentally hinder your  efforts.

No matter how small or seemingly silly the thing you are prompted to do, God will accept it as a fragrant offering if done with the heart to know Him better. He will also use it to help define your character, making your family resemblance to Jesus stronger.

Now, sit with God and ask Him where He wants you to intentionally work in your life this week and how He wants you to do it.

Feel free to tell me (or a trusted friend) what the thing you are to do is — now, do it!

Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.  And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.  Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.  (2 Tim 2:25) Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men. (Tit 3:2 )  Brothers, if one of you is caught in a sin, you should restore him gently. (Ga 6:1).

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matt 5:5)  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matt 11:29).

1. In 2 Timothy, when faced with foolish or stupid arguments, how are Christians instructed to respond?

2. In 2 Timothy, how is a leader to instruct those who oppose him/her?

3. Have you ever received – or given – gentle correction?

4. How does Jesus describe Himself in the passage from Matthew above?

Remembering the expanse of the universe, the majesty of creation and Jesus the God-man who spoke with the Father and the Spirit everything into existence as you ready yourself to read the following passage from Luke 4:14-28.  Invite the Spirit to soften your heart and speak to you through this scene from Jesus’ life as you envision yourself there using all your senses.

What stood out to you in this passage?

Today, let’s meditate upon gentleness by looking at the most true gentleness the world has ever known: Jesus. 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light.”  And there was light.  (Genesis 1:1-3).  He spoke the vast expanse of the universe into existence. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines on the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  (John 1:1-5).  He is light and life. 

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  – For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.  (Colossians 1:15-19).  He is God clothed in flesh.  Physical, tangible and infinite.  The life-force made known to humankind.

Think of the most majestic thing you have ever seen – what is it?

Now, think that Jesus is the creator of it.

Fixing in mind what you can of the awesomeness of His power, greatness of His might, open your Bible (or Bible app to listen!) to Luke 2:1-40.  Employing your imagination and all your senses, invite yourself into the scenes of Jesus’ birth.
What did the Spirit impress upon you?

But the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness.  Galations 5:23

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love endurance and gentleness.  (1 Tim 6:11).  As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Eph 4:1-3) Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Col 3:12-14).

1. How does the world define gentleness?

2. What does the verse in Timothy exhort the man of God to pursue?

3. In Ephesians, how does a Christian live a life worthy of the calling they have received?

4. In Colossians, how are God’s chosen people to clothe themselves?

5. Based on these verses – and other Biblical references the Lord brings to mind – how would you define gentleness?

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints – the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you.  (Col. 1:3-5).  Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.   But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.  (Col 1:21-23).

We always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers.  We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thes. 1:2-3).

1. In Colossions 1:3-5, where did the people’s faith and love spring from?

2. In what or who is your hope – where do your faith and love spring from?

3. In the later verses of Colossians, how were the people to continue in their faith?

4. In Thessalonians:
          What did their faith produce?
          What did their love prompt?
          What did their hope inspire?

I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart.

How steadily all through the Old and New Testament God calls us to stand on the watch and wait for His indications, and how often God’s answers to our prayers have been squandered because we do not watch and wait.  Are you throughly perplexed over God’s way?  Are you unable to reconcile God’s clear way as revealed in His book with the way He is leading you?  Take the line of this prophet during his perplexity.  Stand and watch to see what God will say –watch in the right place.

***

The first thing to remember is to watch at the right place, the place where God has put us.  Watch, that is, for God’s answer to our prayers, and not only watch, but wait…The meaning of waiting in both the Old and New Testament is “standing under,” actively enduring.  It is not standing with folded arms doing nothing.  It is not saying, “In God’s good time it will come to pass.”  By that we often mean, “In my abominably lazy time I let God work.”  Waiting means standing under, an active strength, enduring till the answer comes.

We must never make the blunder of trying to forecast the way God is going to answer our prayer.  When God made a tremendous promise to Abraham, Abraham thought of the best way to help God … But God refused to speak to him for thirteen years, until every possibility of his relying on his own intelligent understanding was at an end.  Then Go came to him and said, “I am Almighty God” … 

***

I do not think we have enough of the wondering spirit that the Holy Spirit gives.  It is the child-spirit…When through Jesus Christ we are rightly related to God, we learn to watch and wait, and wait wonderingly.  “I wonder how God will answer this prayer.”  “I wonder how God will answer the prayer the Holy Spirit is praying in me.”  “I wonder what glory God will bring to Himself out of the strange perplexities I am in.”  “I wonder what new turn His providence will take in manifesting Himself in my ways.” … I wonder how many of us have been getting our ideas and convictions and notions twisted.  Thank God for the confusion if it is going to drive us straight to the watchtower with God.  There our doctrines and creeds are going to be God’s, not doctrines and creeds out of God’s Book twisted to suit our preconceived ideas, but the doctrines of God woven into the flesh and blood tissues of our lives by the indwelling Holy Spirit–watching, waiting, wondering and witnessing.

(Oswald Chambers, If You Will Ask, Reflections on the Power of Prayer)

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.  (1 Cor. 13:13).
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trial.  These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  (1 Peter 1:3-8).  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.  (Romans 5:1-5).  Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work in you so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.  (James 1:2-8).

1. How does the world explain or define “faith”?  What things does the world encourage faith in?

2. What virtues appear together in these passages?  Why do you think that is?

3. Why do the verses in 1 Peter say we face trials?

4. According to the Romans verses, what do our sufferings produce?

5. What does the James passage say about “trials of many kinds,” why do they occur and what should our response be?

6. What kinds of challenges have you been facing in this season of your life?  Are you considering them a test and refinement of your faith?