Self-control... Really?

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23 KJV

Temperance means Self-Control

I have heard it said many times, Rhonda all you need is a little self-control and you could lose that weight. Have you heard that, too? I imagine most of you have. If you are like me, you thought, "I have no self-control!"

This morning I was reading about the Fruit of the Spirit. Every born again Christian has them. They are virtues that only the Holy Spirit produces in us once we accept Christ into our lives, we can not produce the fruits of the Spirit with our own efforts. So I had to face these questions this morning.

Am I a Christian? YES!
Does the Holy Spirit reside in me? YES!

I remember when I was younger thinking which one of the fruit of the spirit do I have? according to Galations 5:22-23, I have them all! Wow!!

You may already know this but humor me here. The first three fruits, love, joy, peace concern our attitude toward God, the second three, longsuffering, gentleness and goodness deals with our social relationships and the last three faith, meekness, and temperance aka Self-Control describe the principals that guide a Christians conduct.

When we allow the Holy Spirit full control of our lives, he produces all of theses graces.

So, you are probably asking... What's your point, Rhonda?

My point is: If I am obedient to the Holy Spirit aka God, then I DO have self-control. I can keep myself from over eating or eating things that I know are not good for my body.

Example of my self-talk: "No Rhonda! You can NOT eat the whole loaf of banana nut bread, but you can have a slice and stop there."

Thanks to the Holy Spirit, each of us has self-control. So from now on, I will check with the Holy Spirit and he will help me to stop when I need to stop.

He can help you, too.

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