Let's Talk Self Control

VERSE OF THE DAY

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power love and self control.” - 2 Timothy 1:7

The Devil Isn’t In Your Ear…You Might Just Lack Self Control

Often I hear people say “the enemy is attacking me” or “Satan has been in my ear” and they use that to justify their poor decision making and I always have found that interesting considering that we should know and understand that the Devil is not omnipresent. Satan is finite and is a created being that has boundaries. God is all knowing, all present, and all powerful (And we have the power of his holy spirit to rule over sin and satan). While I say this I do realize that Satan is still very powerful, just look at the story of Job. But what I think hurts us is when we give too much power to the adversary and now whenever we’re faced with a decision to either deny our fleshly desires or entertain them it’s not always satan (I’m not going to say never but lets stop over spiritualizing these tempting encounters). 

I say all this because I want to actually help you develop some self control instead of blaming it on someone else. The truth is a lot of your shortcomings with self control or discipline are boiled down to your environment. Currently I’m reading a book called Atomic habits by James Clear and its RICH with applicable advice on hammering down some healthy habits and destroying old ones. 

“The people with the best self-control are typically the ones who need to use it the least. It’s easier to practice self-restraint when you don’t have to use it very often. So, yes, perseverance, grit and will power are essential to success, but the way to improve these qualities is not by wishing you were a more disciplined person, but by creating a more disciplined environment.” - James Clear 

It is impossible to maintain good habits or break bad ones in an environment that won’t support it. Self-control is not a sustainable strategy, it's very short term and may allow you to maintain healthy habits or restraint for a moment in time but as time and desire increases you will eventually fail. This is why we need to re-focus on a longer time horizon and change our environments. 

• If you can’t seem to get any work done, leave your phone in an other room for a few hours

• If you continually watch porn at night in your bedroom stop sleeping with your phone in the bedroom

• If you’re continually feeling like you’re not enough, stop following social media accounts that trigger jealousy and envy

• If you have a crappy diet, remove the donuts from the kitchen counter (or really any bad food) 

You guys got this and I’m not saying I have this totally figured out because I don’t but am starting to work on this and am seeing some serious fruit from it. So lets take ownership of our shortcomings, take back the power from the “enemy” and make some real life changes. Have a great start to the week, I’m rooting for you!!🙌🏼

Until Thursday,

Daniel Kelley 

P.S. Sending a warm welcome to the 14 people who subscribed since last week!🥳