Self-control does not come naturally to us. If one piece of chocolate tastes good … three might taste better! We know early bedtime is wise, and yet we stay up late. Over and over, we humans tend to fail at self-control. We like indulging ourselves, even if the end results hurt us. Sharon and Nicole discuss how the Holy Spirit can help us learn self-control in daily living, which yields great peace and blessing. Join them!

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Speaker 2 (00:01):

Welcome to a podcast designed to bring biblical encouragement to your weary soul. We are so glad you’re listening and we pray God blesses you and strengthens you in your walk with him. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is brought to you by the cooperative efforts of Sweet Selah Ministries and Word Radio. Sit back and enjoy.

Nicole (00:28):

Welcome to the Sweet Selah Moments Podcast. This is episode 106, Learning Self-Control. This Fruit of the Spirit is the last of the nine, and it’s a tough one, Sharon. (Sharon: Mm-hmm) It’s remarkably difficult to control oneself. New Year’s resolutions are a good case in point. Studies show that most people fail in the new New Year’s resolutions by February.

Sharon (00:50):

By February.

Nicole (00:51):

Yes. That’s so sad. According to a Forbes report, and I’m quoting here, “research shows that by February, about 80% of people have already forsaken their New Year’s resolutions”.

Sharon (01:02):

That’s a high percentage.

Nicole (01:04):

Yes.

Sharon (01:04):

It really is. No wonder this has to be a fruit of the Spirit.

Nicole (01:07):

I know.

Sharon (01:08):

It’s hard to motivate oneself. Nicole, there are so many ways we fail in this. We fail to limit our food intake, for example, (Nicole: Mm-hmm) even though we know the more food we eat, the more calories to feed our fat cells.

Nicole (01:22):

Yes. And we know that exercise every day is good for our bodies. Yet life gets busy and exercise doesn’t happen.

Sharon (01:29):

Oh, yeah. And then going to bed on time is another one. We know we need sleep. You know, sometimes I find that even getting up from the couch in order to brush my teeth feels too hard. So I sit there and make it worse by the delay.

Nicole (01:43):

And then there’s a daily time with God and the Word, so important yet so easy to skip on a busy morning, especially if we stayed up too late the night before, not brushing our teeth, pushing off the inevitable and therefore slept in bit.

Sharon (01:59):

Yikes. We need help.

Nicole (02:01):

We really do.

Sharon (02:02):

We do so much damage to ourselves with our lack of self-control. So today I’d like to look at some words Paul wrote in Romans to help us understand how we can position ourselves so the Holy Spirit can help us in this important area. Let’s turn to Romans 12. This entire chapter gives the best advice...