Growing Together – Day 27: Self-Control
READ: Matthew 4: 1-11
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Hebrews 4:14-16
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
REFLECT: Defining self-control ought to be pretty straight-forward, right? Control ourselves. Certainly in a world without God, that would be extent of it. However, God became a human in Jesus, gave us his Holy Spirit, and that changes everything about ‘self-control.’
First, we have Jesus’ example - how he lived and how he dealt with temptation. Second, we have the Holy Spirit who lives within all those who have faith. We have God’s truth, a victorious example to follow in Christ, and a supernatural source of power.
Self-control now has two sources of power, and therefore two avenues of pursuit. We still have a responsibility for our own behavior. However, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, we also have a responsibility to draw near to the throne of grace to receive help in times of need.
We tend to go quickly to our effort (motivated by will power, regret, self-righteousness, gratitude, etc). These are not bad necessarily, but we all know they are not entirely effective and do not give us much hope for our growth in Christ-likeness.
PRAY: Let’s go to the throne of grace - where there is hope! We don’t dismiss effort, but let’s direct our effort toward pursuing God first, Godly behavior second. In trying to live and act and speak more like Christ, where are we in need of God’s grace? Let’s take some time today to ask for it…specifically.