Thank heavens for Paul’s statement (Romans 7:15) about doing the things he didn’t want to and not doing what he did want. I can get so very irritated with me when I do what, primarily in retrospect, I really didn’t want to do/say. It’s like the words just spill out of your mouth before you have the chance to catch them, almost as if they have a mind of their own – which is ludicrous. The problem is – once said, how do you resolve hurt feelings or mistakes or whatever is the result of your own behavior? More to the point – can you make amends? However, we can never let Paul’s words become a license or excuse for our words/behaviors.
A related area is our ‘good intentions’. We really do need to be more intentional… about our intentions. Saying, ‘…but that’s not what I meant…’ or ‘…my intention was…’ really doesn’t help. Actually, it doesn’t matter because your words and or actions conveyed a message someone else received. If you truly didn’t mean what was understood, as what you ‘meant’… you need to look at how you convey your messages so that misunderstandings or mix messages don’t occur.
This brings up – precisely, what do we want from our words, from the message? Do we want others to seriously consider what we say? Or, do we simply like the sound of our own voice? Only either/or? Probably there are a multitude of reasons concerning what and how we speak and what we want from others – acceptance of what we say, and action on what we say? Some people only want the opportunity to present a different view to be considered in the decision-making. Again – a multitude of reasons. My point is that we need to be very intentional about what we want from others, which means that we need to be intentional about our intentions.
All of these ‘issues’ (behavior flaws?) leads to our lack of [willpower (?), intentionality (?) – fill in the blank] of our own Self-control, or at least our use of it. We really do have the ability to use self-control, it’s ours but… do we exercise it? Not always and in some cases, quite deliberately … until the remorse hits us. Do you know what self-control means, how it is defined? Simply because it is a ‘concept’ that does not mean that we know what it means – how it looks, what it ‘feels’ like, what it says about us. How You apply your self-control is the point.
When you consider scripture, Galatians 5 teaches:
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under
the law.(v14*)… But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such
there is no law.” (v 22-23) [*see also Romans 8:14]
This teaches us that… Against such things there is no law – that the fruit of the Spirit prevails. I could be mistaken, but I’ve interpreted this to mean that if I exercise my own self-control, then there is no need for someone/something else to control me – to stop me from doing or speaking. And before you ask, no this is not censorship. Nor are we to be mats to be stepped on. Nor is this an attempt to stop us from speaking the truth when it is not the ‘accepted’ mode. None as in none of the attempts to silence us is ever implied anywhere in scripture. If this seems like a narrow line to walk… it is.
The letter to the Galatians is talking about being led by the Holy Spirit and giving us an understanding of what this means by talking about the evidence of the Spirit in our lives. We are taught that the fruit is the demonstration, the evidence. Our question should be – is our fruit … love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Is this who we are? Are these the fruits that we exhibit?
What do we ALWAYS have control over? Ourselves, our reactions, words, attitudes, behavior – to name a few of the significant qualities. Our actions are truly the follow through on our intentions. We CAN control our intentions… if we will. Can’t do it alone? Not sure we are supposed to. Try, yes. But part of the reason the Holy Spirit was sent was to strengthen us – let Him do His work and partner with Him. As we do exercise our personal control over ourselves, we discover that our helper (John 16:7) has been working with us all along to strengthen who we are becoming.
Good intentions are important… as a starting point. We need to filter them through our self-control in order to determine whether to follow through. We can and in an instant. For me, though I don’t always do this, when I find that I am – my true intentions are in fact and not just in thought.
