1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian SELF CONTROL | Page 4

MONDAY
Colossians 1 v 9 – 14
One of the fundamental truths that I believe, as it relates to self-control, is found in the
simple truth that UNDERSTANDING THE TRUTH OF SELF-CONTROL WILL
CHANGE THE WAY YOU PRAY.
As we said in the introduction, Self-Control is about taking personal responsibility for
your own actions and doing what God has told you to do. Remember, however,before
you start making excuses that you will never be able to evidence all the aspects of the
fruit, that what we have discussed so far is that God will never tell you to do what you
cannot do. He has put His Spirit within you; He has committed Himself to empowering
you to do what you need to do. When we acknowledge the reality of God’spresence
within us, this will surely make a difference in ensuring that, with a bit of effort from
ourselves, the fruit of which we have been speaking will become easily evident.
I have attended, over the course of my life as a Christian, many prayer meetings and I
have often been intrigued by the prayers that I have heard prayed. I do not want to
sound unkind, but I think that God sometimes, while he listens to us pray, would have
to consider half of our prayers illegitimate. How often have we prayed,“Lord help me to
be kind!” and when God hears that prayer, I’m sure that with sadness, He would
answer,“I can’t help you with that,just do it. Just be kind! You have the power within
you to do that.” How many of us have prayed,“Lord help me to be faithful”. And again,
God would give the same reply. This I am convinced would be true of every aspect of the
fruit of the spirit. We cannot pray,“Lord help me to be more loving, joyful, peaceful,
patient, etc…” because those are prayers that God will not answer, because they, He has
declared, are our responsibility. It is absolutely imperative, people, that you understand
the power of this truth; God has already given you everything that you need for
godliness. He has done His part and now it’s up to us!JUST DO IT!
Prayer Thought: Won’t you take some time today to relive some of the Bible stories that
you know so well and see if what I am saying to you today is true. Let me give you some
examples: I never read of Daniel praying that God would help him to be faithful; he just
was. I never read of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego praying that God would help them
to be good; they just were. I never read of Joseph praying that the Lord would help him to
be patient; he just was. You’ll never read of the apostle Paul, whilst in prison, praying that
God would help him to have peace; he just did. The list is never ending. So as you pray
today, won’t you try and wean yourself off these “help me” prayers, re ?????????????e?)???????????????????????????????????????????????!?????????????????((