Self control

by Heather Lee

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

Some of us will be familiar with the list of the fruit of the spirit but how often do we consider the last one; self control?

In the Bible, God warns us about sexual immorality on multiple occasions, probably most fervently in 1 Corinthians 6:18:

“Flee from sexual immorality.”

In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus says “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away!” This sounds like an extreme measure but I think we can apply it to our approach to any temptation towards sexual immorality.

If scrolling social media apps is leading you to looking at pornography, delete the apps. If reading sexually explicit books is leading you to have impure thoughts, get rid of the books.

If you are lusting after a person who isn’t your spouse, don’t spend time with that person or even entertain thoughts that might lead to something immoral.

These guidelines aren’t in place to stop us from having fun,

they’re simply to protect us and other people around us from the destruction that sexual immorality can bring.

Instead, let’s seek after the good things that come from the Holy Spirit and hold onto these words from the start of Galatians 5 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”

Give up social media for a day.

Spend time reading the book of Galatians instead!

Lord, please highlight the areas in my life that could cause me to indulge in sexual immorality and help me to get rid of anything I need to.

Amen