". . . the desire for self-control must be accompanied by a plan. If self-control demands thoughtfulness, and if it ultimately declares war on both our own flesh and Satan’s temptations, then there must be a strategy. If our battle was against an insignificant foe, then planning would be unnecessary." - Ed Welch, "Self Control: The Battle Against 'One More'" (not available online, published in The Journal of Biblical Counseling 19/2 [Winter 2001]: 24-31)
Currently I am reading Feminine Appeal ( for the 2nd Time) by Carolyn Mahaney with a couple of girls over the phone once a week. This past week we read the chapter on Self Control. Again, I have been convicted over the lack of self control I have in many areas of my life. I love control, I want what I want, when I want and how I want it, and if I don't get it my desires/attitude is ready to wage war at all who is in my way. I know, its terrible, but I have to be honest about the sin that is in my heart.. that's what it is sin. At the end of the chapter, Carolyn gives a exhortation to withdraw doing something that you can't image being without for a week. I have accepted this challenge, and as a result, I will not be on my computer for the next week or two. i don't believe it is a sin in and of it self to blog or to spend time on the computer, but for me I have noticed after my time with the LORD its the first thing I think about, sometimes before spending time in the word. In my heart, when the LORD revealed how important this was to me, my mind immediately went to ROmans 1 where the LORD was talking about .."they worshiped the creation instead of the creator"... I think denying my self of this time will help me to remember that this is just something to be used to POINT others to the LORD.. MY desire is to fall more and more in love with the savior and not the things of this world
Please pray that the LORD would reveal to me any other sin or some part of His character that I don't know much about. Also, please continue to pray for Delta and I every Wednesday as we have our teen girl bible study here at my home. Maybe D will post updates about the bible study on her blog. :) Catch ya later my friends!
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two shall become one flesh." But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
"Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control."-Prov. 25:28
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
- Luke 9:23