Self-control

Friday, August 20

Self-Control    

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So, run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.1 Corinthians 9:24, 25

There are 135 more days until the year 2022. Perhaps some of you at this time have taken inventory of the year to see how close or far you are to meeting your 2021 goals. If you are the sort of person who makes New Year’s resolutions, you are probably sitting down to identify something that you want, but something that you don’t have yet. The days ahead are crunch time and you will recognize that in order to gain what you want; it’s going to require a measure of discipline. Self-control, this is what Paul is talking about in this passage, self-control means that we give up something that we want in order to gain something that we want even more.

Paul tells us that we must pursue the prize ‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it’ (verse 24). Obviously, Paul isn’t saying that only one person is going to enter heaven. He’s saying that there will be people who start the race not in the sense of having true saving faith, but in the sense of professing to believe something. In the sense of agreeing but not entrusting themselves to Jesus. They start the race in that sort of a way where they will eventually fall away. This is why he then gives us a very true exhortation. He says, “So run that you may obtain it.” And then Paul tells us how to do this, with self-control.

Self-control is not a superhuman, white knuckling strength where you try really hard not to act according to the desires that are raging in your heart. That is not real self-control. The believer’s self-control comes from the inside out. Real Christian self-control is not my strength asserted over myself to make sure I act appropriately. It’s a supernatural grace of God to transform me from the inside out. Not your power in you, but God’s power in you. From the depths of my soul all the way out to how I act in life.

We are called to constantly look to the Lord. Keep our focus on Him so that we can run this race and win the prize. So then; let’s live for the Lord Jesus with all the earnestness of a world-class athlete. Let’s run this race in such a way as to lay hold of the prize!