The focal point of this podcast episode is the exploration of self-control, particularly from a biblical perspective. We delve into the notion that true self-control is not a product of rigid discipline but rather the result of the Holy Spirit guiding our desires and choices. Through an analysis of the Greek term for self-control, we discover that it embodies inner strength and the ability to govern oneself from within. This episode aims to provide insights into how the Holy Spirit enables us to respond to our emotions and impulses in a manner that aligns with God's will, allowing for a life characterized by freedom rather than slavery to our immediate desires. As we navigate the intricacies of self-control, we emphasize the importance of receiving God's love and guidance in our journey toward making wise and fulfilling choices. The essence of self-control is intricately woven into the fabric of our spiritual lives, as articulated by Kimberly Lockinour in this episode of Living the Selah Life.

Takeaways:

1. The podcast emphasizes that self-control is a form of freedom, allowing us to choose wisely rather than being ruled by impulses.
2. Biblical self-control is rooted in the Holy Spirit, leading to inner strength and the ability to govern our emotions effectively.
3. Listeners are encouraged to view self-control as a reflection of God's love, rather than a burdensome obligation.
4. The importance of recognizing the long-term consequences of our choices is highlighted, as it fosters better decision-making.
5. Self-control involves understanding and managing our emotional responses to situations, rather than suppressing them.
6. The episode stresses the necessity of community support and professional help for achieving true self-control and personal growth.

The content shared on Living the Selah Life is for spiritual encouragement, personal reflection, and informational purposes only.

It is not intended to diagnose, treat or replace medical, psychological or professional advice of any kind.

Please consult a licensed healthcare provider or qualified professional for any physical, mental or emotional health concerns.

The views expressed are those of the host, Kimberly Lockanore, and are based on personal experience and Biblical insight, not clinical training.

Welcome back to Living the Selah Life, a podcast that invites you to slow down, breathe and reconnect with the presence of God.

I'm your host, Kim, and this space is for anyone longing to become more familiar with his presence.

Each episode is an intentional pause, a moment to reflect, realign and remember that God meets us when we create space for Him.

So take a breath.

You are right on time.

Let's live the Selah life together.

Hey hey my friends.

Welcome back to Living the Selot Life.

In our last episode, we talked about kindness as the heart of God in action.

We talked about some practical ways that kindness flows through us to meet real life needs.

We are almost finished with our journey, y'.

All.

We've done love, joy, goodness, gentleness, kindness, and today we are going to do self control.

Our favorite Nope.

But we're going to do self control.

Left we have peace, faithfulness and patience.

But today we're going to talk about self control.

We'll see that the biblical self control is not about harsh discipline or rigid willpower.

It's more about the freedom that comes when the Holy Spirit governs our desires, emotions, and our choices.

So we'll dive right into our main teaching.

And just like the other teachings, I'm going to go off of the Greek word for self control.

So In Galatians, chapter 5, verses 23, the word for self control there is encraa encratea and I will spell it.

It's E G K R A T E I a so encra teia literally means inner strength or strength from within.

It describes the power to govern oneself from the inside out.

It's a noun that describes the virtue of having dominion or power over one's own desires, passions, and sensual appetites.

In ancient Greek culture, enkrateia was considered one of the highest virtues.

It described the ability to master our desiresone's desires, emotions and impulses.

Greek philosophers saw it as an essential for a good life, not an option.

But they saw it as essential to have a good life because it enabled people to make wise choices rather than being driven by immediate wants or feelings.

So when the Holy Spirit produces in Kratia in us.

He creates inner strength that governs our choices.

And this strength comes from God's own power within us.

Of course we know it does, enabling us to choose what is wise, good and life giving rather than being controlled by impulses, emotions or external pressures.

And I know some of you guys like me can relate to a time in your life where you lacked all self control and impulse emotions.

What was immediate now, which seemed expedient but wasn't, was what ruled your life.

If you wanted it, you did it.

If you wanted it, you bought.

Definitely took the Holy Spirit to put some temperament on that, but he did an amazing job.

Biblical self control, on the other hand, it is freedom.

It's the freedom to choose our responses rather than being enslaved to our impulses.

And that is important to note because I know for me, prior to having the Holy Spirit, even if I wanted to practice self control better, there was a limit to it.

There was a limit to it.

It wasn't like it is now where you actually take the time to weigh choices and some things are not even attractive anymore.

You just don't want to do them because you've lost all desire.

Biblical self control, it's the freedom to pursue what truly satisfies rather than being driven by temporary desires.

We often try to control ourselves by saying no to things that we want or forcing ourselves to do things that we don't want to do by creating rigid rules and systems.

And this approach, although it does work for some, for many like me, it leads to failure, guilt, and eventually rebellion.

Because it depends on human strength.

Biblical self control flows from the Holy Spirit's power within us.

And just like all the other fruit of the Spirit that we've talked about, we are able to operate in these fruits because the Holy Spirit enables us to do so.

The Holy Spirit produces self control by connecting us to God's own self controlled nature.

The Spirit changes our desires.

Instead of trying to resist bad desires through willpower, the Spirit gives us new desires that align with God's will.

We begin to want what God wants, to love what God loves, and to choose what God chooses.

The Spirit provides wisdom for our choices and self control requires wisdom to know what is truly good for us and what only appears good in the moment.

The Spirit gives us God's perspective on our choices, helping us see the long term consequences of our decisions.

And I don't know about you guys, but I did not used to think about the long term consequences of decisions when we were on impulse street and doing whatever we want street however we wanted, whenever we wanted street the ability to even think about the long term consequences didn't exist.

But it does now.

The spirit gives us strength for difficult choices when we need to say no to temptation or yes to something challenging.

The spirit gives us supernatural strength that goes beyond our human capacity so that we can choose what is right even when it's difficult.

One of the most important areas for self control is our emotional life.

The spirit control person is not controlled by emotions.

They feel emotions fully while choosing how to respond to these emotions wisely.

Self control with anger means feeling the emotion while choosing how to express it constructively.

We can acknowledge anger without being driven to hurtful words or actions.

And we can use anger as information about what matters to us while choosing responses that serve rather than destroy relationships.

Self control with fear means acknowledging our fears while choosing to trust God's faithfulness.

We don't pretend like they don't exist.

You can be fearful, but we're doing it anyway.

We acknowledge the fear.

We're just not going to let the fear control how we move forward.

Self control with disappointment means allowing ourselves to grieve losses while choosing hope and perseverance.

We don't deny our disappointment.

We process it while choosing to believe God's goodness and continue moving forward.

The goal is not to eliminate emotions.

Please do not do that.

God is a God.

He has emotions.

That's why you have them and you need them.

He will purify them.

But the goal is not to eliminate emotions.

Emotions are gifts from God that provide important information.

The goal is to let the Holy Spirit govern how we respond to our emotions.

The Holy Spirit also enables self control in our physical choices.

This includes how we eat, how we rest, how we exercise, and how we care for our bodies.

Self control with food can look like eating in ways that nourish and fuel our bodies.

Rather than being driven by emotional eating, stress eating or mindless consumption.

Self control with rest means creating healthy patterns of work and rest, staying connected to God through regular spiritual practices and avoiding the extremes of laziness or workaholism.

Self control with physical desires can look like expressing our sexuality within God's design for marriage and treating our bodies and other bodies with honor and respect.

The goal is not to be perfect.

The goal is making choices that honor God and serve our well being.

But this fruit, just like the others, is hard to gain a grasp on it until you have allowed God's love to touch you.

So we must first receive God's love and acceptance exactly as we are, including our areas of Struggle with self control Knowing that God loves us before we get our lives together and not after.

His love is the bedrock that enables genuine self control.

God's self control toward us is perfect.

He has the power to force us to obey him, yet he exercises immense restraint and gives us freedom to choose.

He disciplines us when we need it, yet he is patient with our slow progress.

Sometimes receiving God's self controlled love means understanding that his discipline flows from love, not anger.

His boundaries serve our good and his patience with our growth demonstrates his commitment to our well being.

When we fully receive God's gracious approach to our own areas of weakness, we can extend the same grace to ourselves and to others.

We can pursue self control from love rather than shame or condemnation.

And this receiving also means being honest about where we need help.

True self control acknowledges that we cannot control ourselves just through sheer willpower.

We need the Holy Spirit's power, sometimes community support, and even professional help for areas that we struggle.

A biblical self control requires wisdom and to know what truly serves our good and what only appears good in the moment.

The Spirit gives us discernment to see the difference between legitimate needs and unhealthy desires.

Wise self control knows the difference between self care and selfishness.

Self control also requires discernment about timing, just as the last fruit did.

Sometimes the wise choice is to wait, to pray more, to seek counsel before acting, and other times the wise choice is to act quickly before an opportunity passes.

As we stay connected to the Holy Spirit, he guides us in how to exercise self control in ways that serve God and ourselves.

We will move on to this week's Scripture Spotlight, which comes from 2 Timothy chapter 1, verses 7.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

This verse reveals the ground of spirit enabled self control.

It says what God has not given us, God has not given us a spirit of fear.

Fear often drives our lack of self control.

We act impulsively because we're afraid of missing out, afraid of discomfort or afraid of what others may think.

And God has not given us this driving fear.

The Spirit of Power Power is the Greek word dunamis love, that word referring to divine strength and ability.

The Holy Spirit gives us access to God's own power to make wise choices and resist unhealthy impulses.

The Spirit of Love Love provides the motivation for self control.

When we're filled with God's love, we exercise self control because we love God, we love others, and because we have received God's Love for ourselves Love makes self control joyful rather than burdensome.

The Spirit of a Sound Mind this is a mind that thinks clearly, makes wise decisions and is not driven by impulse or emotion.

The Source all three qualities power, love and a sound mind come from God's Spirit.

We receive them as gifts from God.

When we operate from the Spirit's power, love and wisdom instead of fear, we naturally exercise healthy self control.

Our choices flow from a place of strength and love rather than anxiety.

Let's move on to this week's Selah moment and prayer.

This is our opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit's power for self control.

So begin by sitting comfortably and taking a few deep breaths.

Invite the Holy Spirit's power, love and wisdom to fill you.

Honestly Acknowledge the areas where you need the Spirit's help with self control.

Don't try to minimize or hide your struggles.

God already knows them and he wants to help.

Remember that God loves you exactly as you are, including your areas of struggle.

His love is not conditional and his love is the foundation that makes healthy self control possible.

Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with his power to make wise choices and then surrender your willpower and ask for his strength instead.

Let us pray.

Father, thank you for loving us again exactly as we are, including our areas of struggle with self control.

Thank you for not giving us a spirit of fear, shame or condemnation, but instead for giving us power, love and a sound mind.

Holy Spirit, we need your help with self control.

We have tried to control ourselves and have often failed.

Fill us with your inner strength that enables wise choices.

Change our desires so that we want what you want.

Give us your perspective on our choices so that we can see what truly serves our good.

Provide supernatural strength when we need to make difficult decisions and help us exercise self control in our emotional lives, in our relationships.

Help us choose love even when we don't feel like loving.

Give us patience with difficult people and wisdom in conflict in our physical lives.

Help us make choices that honor our bodies as temples of your spirit.

Give us wisdom about food, restaurants, exercise and all of our physical needs.

Help us care for ourselves in ways that enable us to serve you and others well in our spiritual lives.

Help us choose consistent connection with you through prayer, worship and your word.

When spiritual disciplines feel difficult, Remind us the joy that comes from from knowing you where we have been harsh with ourselves about our failures.

Teach us to receive your gentleness.

Help us to pursue self control from love rather than shame.

Make us people who are free to choose rather than enslaved to impulses, emotions, or external pressures.

Let our self control flow from the abundance of your spirit within us.

Thank you that your power is made perfect in weakness.

Thank you that we don't have to be perfect to be loved and help us to grow in self control as an expression of our love for you and for others.

Use our spirit controlled lives to bring glory to your name and serve the good of those around us.

Let others see the freedom and peace that come from living under your loving authority.

It is in Jesus name that we pray and it is so.

Now sink into your Selah moment.

Well, well, well.

That's it folks.

Thank you for listening to Living the Selah life.

If this moment stirred something in your spirit, please share with someone who needs to be reminded to pause and listen.

You can connect with me on Instagram, Facebook group or YouTube Living the Selah Life or email me your story, testimony or any Selah moment that you would like to hear on the show.

I would love to hear from you.

Until next time, remember that God is speaking.

He wants to guide you and direct you and give you his wisdom for your life.

Create space to listen.

Be patient with yourself as you learn.

Trust that the same God who spoke the universe into existence wants to speak into your ordinary life.

May you go from this place rested, carrying the awareness that his presence is always near.

May you be rooted in the unshakable word of God, the Logos that ground you and the rhema that guides you.

May you keep rising into the life he designed for you, into purpose, into peace, into the fullness of his calling.

May your life become a living Selah, an intentional pause that reveals his presence in Jesus name and it is so Selah.