Yielding to the Spirit
And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 1 Corinthians 9:25
In the key verse today, temperate in Greek is "egkrateuomai", which means self-control and continence. One of the manifestations of the fruit of the spirit is self-control. It is the quality of controlling one's desires and passions.
Life is all about our management skills, whether how we manage our time, energy, health, and emotions, and good management requires discipline, which is self-control focused on long-term gains rather than instant gratification. As an example, we need to curb our appetites to not overeat junk foods for weight management. To manage our money well, we cannot squander it on a crazy shopping spree.
Self-control is also referred to as continence in Greek, meaning being able to control our bowels and bladder movements. In other words, incontinence occurs when we are incapable of holding our poop and urine and letting them out. Excuse my graphic language, but what I mean is our minds and emotions. An example to illustrate one fails to hold anger and lets it all out, or someone completely loses their cool and goes crazy? It is possible to explode our psychological excrement if we lack self-control.
The key to exercising self-control is to "think before we act", since our minds govern our actions. Biblical self-control, however, is not about self-will and under our own control, but under the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to exercise self-control, we need fleshy minds that yield to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, however, does not take over our minds as if we were robots, rather, it requires our active cooperation of free will to yield to it.
Therefore, biblical self-control is not about self-will or legalistic abstinence, but about God's enablement to have "the spirit control". What motivates us to strive for self-control, as written in today's verse? The goal is not to achieve a six-pack body or a seven-figure income. All of these things are perishable. Our motivation is to strive to accomplish God's purpose for our lives. We are called for a race, and we will complete our race like a disciplined athlete who will be rewarded with imperishable crowns. Being motivated by the right goal motivates us to yield the Spirit and, in turn, living a victorious Christian life.
Blessing prayer: May the Holy Spirit remind us of our ultimate goal and empower us to manifest the fruit of self-control. We choose to yield to the Holy Spirit and crucify our fleshly desires. In Jesus’ name, Amen
