The person who has never conquered himself/herself is much to be pitied. That person is forever tossing around in life, moving from one habit to another. They have a defeated attitude toward life. You may be like that. You know that there is one dreaded word that describes you and you hate it. It is that you lack any self-control. Without exercising self-control, you find you drift along through life.
Seneca puts it this way, “Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.” A lot of motivational speakers who talk about being a successful person say that one critical characteristic is someone who has self-control. That one essential habit can be the deciding factor between someone who is successful and another who is not successful.
Knowing that, is easy to claim, but how do you cultivate it more in your life? Scripture talks about what it takes to develop a divine nature while on earth—“…and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness…” (2 Peter 1:6). Among other characteristics, self-control is vital to the Christian walk in Christ. This is in the list that Peter dictates, thus you know it is available from the Lord. Also, “self-control” is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirt when you became a Christian—see Galatians 5:22-23.
The reason you may not have more self-control is because you have not made it a matter of prayer in your life. Self-control is a discipline learned, not something that is dumped on you in large chunks all of a sudden. Ask Christ to give you more self-control, then wait for trials to come so that you have to exercise self-control to pass the trial. Really, there is no short cut to getting self-control. It only occurs when forced to exercise it.
Start exercising that self-control and just watch how much better you feel about yourself. Let Christ give you the strength you need!
