Do you need to get Self-Control, or do you already have it?

Self-control.

What a foreign concept for most of my life I thought if I had an impulse, a craving, a desire, or an emotion, I just had to obey it. I thought I was helpless in the grasp of these overwhelming compulsions—a slave at the mercy of wherever they chose to drag me. I believed self-control was something I had to muster up, and not something I already had.

Oh, how very wrong I was.

So I’m a Jesus lover. I’m completely unashamed about this—in fact, I gush Jesus. (deep, romantic, gushy sigh). He’s loved me deeper than anyone ever could. I don’t like to say I’m a Christian, sometimes, because I get thrown into this big melting pot of haters, judgmental bashers, and notoriously mean, stuffy people. Christians should be known for one main thing: displaying the love of the Father. Greatly loved people know how to love greatly (which means, I’m not sure a lot of the church actually realizes how much they’re loved, or has actually received that love yet). So, I just say I’m a Jesus lover, and He and I are fine with that. (:

When my life got rocked by Jesus, I instantly felt different. I felt this darkness peel away from my soul, replaced by the most pure, authentic, powerful love I’d ever encountered. What happened when I surrendered my life and asked Him to fill me? I was being reborn. My soul was coming alive—the way it was always intended to—being reunited with the love of the one who created me. I was meant to run on the fuel of His love. I was created to come alive inside a relationship with Him.

So, scripture says, in Christ, you are a new creation. You no longer live, but Christ lives in you (Galatians 2:20). The old has passed away, and the new has come. That old, nasty nature that was always insecure, fearful, rejected, abandoned, alone, and hurting found itself alive with LIFE when it encountered the love of God through Mr. Awesome Jesus.

So when Jesus talked about our old nature being dead when He came in, he meant DEAD. Dead, dead, dead, dead. You don’t have to keep killing it, because it’s dead. You don’t have to slowly die, because it’s dead.

I didn’t understand this for a long time. I thought I still had to become something, that I was always reaching forward towards obtaining self-control (or any of the fruits of the Spirit, for that matter). I didn’t think I already had it. But I did.

Let me show you how this has changed my life.

So I used to strain towards obtaining self-control, but my belief system was starting from defeat, and not from victory—but in Christ, we fight from victory, not towards it (-Graham Cooke). He’s already won. He’s already given you everything that you could possibly need. He’s already taken back the keys and pumped you full of so many spiritual promises, you’re bursting at the seams. Now, you just have to come into agreement with that.

When a compulsion to binge would come over me, instead of starting from defeat and hoping and striving and working towards self-control, I learned to stop. I would come in alignment with the truth, and I would say, “Thank you, God, that you’ve already given me everything I need in Christ. I AM a woman of self-control. I ALREADY have it. So I will remain IN IT.”

Let me tell you something….it’s an instant shift. The second you align your mind, heart, and will with the truth, your ‘out of control’ days will be over. It takes practice, just like anything, but you get stronger and stronger the more you begin to align yourself with victory, and not with defeat.

YOUR TURN:

Is there an area of your life you feel completely out of control? The next time that feeling sinks its teeth in your soul, I want you to stop. Take a deep breath, and stay this:

“God, I thank you that I already have everything I need in Christ. I AM a person of self-control. I AM a person who fights from victory, and not towards it. I HAVE SELF-CONTROL BECAUSE YOU HAVE ALREADY GIVEN IT TO ME.”

Declare that truth until your EMOTIONS and COMPULSIONS line up with the truth that’s already inside of you. Like Graham Cooke says, find out who you are, and then act accordingly.

You don’t have to become, because you already are. (:

Xx, Sista Christa