Towards the end of every year I begin asking the Lord for a verse to stand on and use as my “theme verse” in the New Year. I can honestly say that the Holy Spirit always answers me and leads me to a verse. I don’t always understand the significance of the verse at first, but it’s guaranteed that at some point during that New Year I will find out why.
This year the verse the Lord gave me is Proverbs 25:28 TLB: “A man without self-control is as defenseless as a city with broken down walls.” I’ve known this verse for a while, but it’s honestly a hard one to receive sometimes. I like it when the Lord gives me an inspirational, go get 'em verse, but this is a challenging verse. The reason it’s challenging is because it definitely hits close to home. As I have sought to get closer to the Lord this year the main area He is dealing with me in is getting rid of distractions. I am reading my Bible and praying plenty, but now to fine tune me even more I know I’m going to have to have the self-control to say no to distractions. If I can’t control myself in areas such as eating or watching TV, can God really count on me? I like 2 Timothy 1:7 in the New Living Translation, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” It is very spiritual to not only be a holy and righteous person, but to be a disciplined person.
Many times in the past when I would maybe choose to watch a movie or eat an extra plate of food instead of read the Bible I would casually throw out the phrase “Oh I can’t control myself…” but truthfully, a mature Christian can. To say that we can’t control ourselves in any situation is a lie, because the Bible says that God has straight up GIVEN us the gift of self-control! It’s also one of the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5.
So this year, I am not going to be defenseless against sneak attacks from the enemy! I am going to have self-control in every area and see what God has in store!