I write regularly about self-control because it is so important in living a righteous and holy life. Most Christians don’t plan on sinning, they just can’t seem to win in the wrestling match with the devil, the world, and their own flesh, and they don’t know how to get strong enough to win that daily war. Self-control is exactly what it sounds like, controlling self, which is doing what you want to do instead of what the devil wants you to do, doing what you know is the right thing instead of what the world pressures you into doing, and doing the hard thing that produces results instead of the easy stuff that your flesh is addicted to.

The apostle Paul often compares living the Christian life with athletics. In 1 Corinthians 9:24 he says that athletes exercise self-control in every area of their life to win a prize that will not last, but Christians exercise self-control in every area of their life to win a prize that will last for all eternity.

The key to growing in self-control is to focus on the finish line, the day we stand before Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ and are held accountable for the life we have lived for Him and are rewarded for what we have done with our life that matters.

Every morning in my prayer of commitment, I pray to the LORD and say, “today, Lord Jesus, I will live my life as of it is the last day I have before I stand before you and give an account of what I have done and am rewarded for my accomplishments for the Lord.

Self-control is all about what motivates you.

I just finished writing my goals for 2022. It is a little early, but I like to have them done by the time I start my leadership classes so that I can use mine as an example on how to write goals. Learning how to write good, motivational goals is one of the major things that those who are in my leadership classes will learn. Leadership I is all about personal growth in character, becoming a person who God will use to do his work. Leadership II is all about bearing much fruit as a disciple of Jesus, and everyone learns what the key principles are for being a highly productive person. Leadership III is learning how to communicate clearly, how to teach others effectively, and preach when the opportunity arises so that the hearers are well taught and motivated to do what you are teaching them to do.

I have 73 goals this year because I will be 73 years old next month and I have written one goal per year old I am since I was 18 years old. Some of the goals I set this year don’t really need to be goals because I have done them long enough that I would do them whether I made them a goal or not, such as my Bible reading goal. I put these in my goal list because of the teaching and modeling I do with them in my leadership class, and I want everyone to have a Bible reading goal so I put mine in. One of my guiding principles when I write my goals is that every year I will learn a new skill that I have never learned before, I will go someplace I have never been before, and I will do something that I have never done before. I also try to have several BHAG’s, “Big Hairy Audacious Goals.” One of my BAGS’s is to pedal my bicycle 4,000 miles to Yorktown, Virginia this summer. That should be a fun goal, an exciting goal, and a very hard one, that is why it is a BHAG.

One of the diseases common to all people is one called “rutitus”, (spell checker had fun with that one!). Rutitus is the tendency that people have to get in a rut, that is, they do what they have always done and they do it the way they have always done it. Rutitus is caused by a combination of a fear of failing, the security and comfort that doing the same old things the same old way brings, and it is just plain easier.

One of the purposes of goal setting is to push ourselves out of the ruts that we are in. It is one of the reasons that is hard to get people to set goals. People like their ruts for the reasons that I have already mentioned.

Living righteously takes a huge amount of inner strength, which all comes from God. God loves to give His strength to people who love Him and who are serving Him. He gives His strength to people who meet the conditions that He has established. The more faithful that we are in meeting the conditions the more strength that He gives us.

Probably the most basic of conditions to receiving God’s strength is reading the Bible. In the Bible there are dozens of different blessings that God gives to those who love His Word, who read it, memorize it, meditate on it, and who study it.

A few of the blessings that we receive when we faithfully read the Bible are;

Peace amid chaos. Psalms 119:165 Those who love Your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble.

Extraordinary wisdom to know what to do and say in any and every situation. Psalms 119:97-100 O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have observed Your precepts.

Growing righteousness. Psalms 119:9-11 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.

A healthy soul. Psalms 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.

A growing righteousness. 1 Peter 2:2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

A supernatural strength. Psalms 138:2-3 For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.
On the day I called, You answered me;
You made me bold with strength in my soul.

Some people will say to me, “how much do I have to read the Bible?” It all depends on how much of God’s many cool blessings that you want.

A number of year’s ago in my sermon I said quite emphatically, “God loves some of you here this morning way more than some of you others.” I may have even sung my personal song that I sing all of the time, “Jesus loves me more than you!” I then went on and made my main point in the sermon, which was based on 2 Corinthians 9:7 “God loves a cheerful giver.” I was preaching a sermon on giving in preparation for our special offering for our Foreign Missions ministry.

After the service, a visiting lady stormed up to me and began giving me a significant scolding for my lousy theology. I let her vent for a few minutes, and then when she stopped for a second to take a breath, I asked her if she was in the habit of giving some of her money sacrificially and cheerfully to God’s work. She stopped talking and stood and just looked at me for the longest time, I assumed she was trying to think of something to say, then she just turned around and left and I haven’t seen her since. Not a good way to attract people to come back to a church service again.

One of the things that motivates me to pursue holiness diligently is the fact that God indeed is closer relationally to those who are pressing on to righteousness than those who are changing little. I desire God’s face to shine upon me. I want to please Him with my life. I want to sense His pleasure in my lifestyle and attitude.

Psalms 5:12 For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield.

Psalms 11:7 For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.

Psalms 33:5 He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.

Psalms 37:29-31 The righteous will inherit the land
and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.

Proverbs 15:9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but He loves one who pursues righteousness.

Psalms 5:4-6 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

Matthew 23:25-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside you are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Jesus says “woe” eight times to the Scribes and Pharisees. They obviously got some things wrong to get that much scolding from Jesus. In verse 28, Jesus says something interesting; he said that “outwardly they appeared righteous to men, but inwardly they were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” On the outside they behaved pretty good, why? What was their motive?

Matthew 23:5 But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men.

Matthew 6:1 Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

The biggest hurdle we have in pursuing righteousness is motive. It is so hard to keep our motive pure, and to pursue holiness to please the Lord rather than people. We can see people, we can hear people and it only takes a minute for our motives to move from North to South, wham, just like that and we can go days before we notice, and by then we often don’t care.

One of the warning signs that our motive for pursuing holiness has moved from pleasing God to pleasing people is that we get our feelings hurt easily, and we get weary in well-doing.

You don’t want to be a person who does all the right things for all the wrong reasons and doesn’t even know it. What a shame when you stand before Jesus at the “Judgment Seat of Christ” and everything you have done with your life is burned up.

1. If a person is genuinely born again, headed for heaven, not hell, they have had a heart change, the Holy Spirit is now living in them, and as a result they want to become holy like God, they have a desire to do good put in them by God. If the desire to be holy and righteous is not in you it is probably because you aren’t truly saved.

Philippians 2:12-13 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

2. God loves righteousness, and righteous people are His favorites.

Psalms 146:8c The Lord loves the righteous;

Luke 1:6 They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

Luke 1:30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.

3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.

3. God uses righteous, holy people to do His work. That super motivates me.

4. Those who are pressing on to grow in character, holiness, and righteousness sense God’s pleasure in them and, as a result, have a strong sense of self-esteem.

5. Those who are never standing still but always pressing on to grow and change, to become holy and righteous we do very well at the judgment seat of Christ, they will receive many rewards that will last forever.

6. Those who love righteousness will have a special power given to them from God and it will impact their entire life.

7. The righteous will have much better relationships with other people, especially family and friends.

As we press on to maturity our attitude and right understanding of the process is important to keep us from getting discouraged with our progress. The key word is “train,” not “try,” we are training ourselves to be holy, not trying harder. In the process we will blow it and sin, and the natural response is to feel like a failure and give up, but what we need to do is humbly confess to God the details of our sin, and accept His forgiveness. Even if it is the 400th time that we have committed the same sin, we need to humbly declare to God that we did it, no excuses.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Psalms 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.

Proverbs 24:16 For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again,

Psalms 37:24 When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.

It is important that we don’t make our confession a superficial act of religion, glossing over our sin because God forgives it. If I pray about my sin, remembering it, remembering what led up to it, I will grieve over my sin and the fact that this is the 400th time I have done this same exact sin.

When I have a prayer time of confession I will often pray on my knees as an act of contrition. I end my confession prayer times with a plea to God for His strength because I desire with all my heart to be holy as He is holy.

Sincere confession results in a growing determination and resolve to conquer this sin, insincere, superficial, rote confession results in comfortableness with our own sinfulness and apathy towards getting rid of it.

Psalms 51:1-4 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.

Psalms 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

I have a mirror in my bathroom that I look into every morning. I look to see if I forgot anything in my morning preparations to go out into the world. If my beard trim is straight, if I combed my hair, and I smile at myself to see if I brushed my teeth. The purpose of my mirror is to find flaws; I don’t ever remember looking into the mirror and saying or thinking, “Wow, you are one good-looking stud!”

It would be cool if God would give us a special, supernatural mirror that would show us our character flaws when we looked into it, and as a bonus, it would show us each of the sins we have committed in the last 24 hours. Some wouldn’t look into it very often, too depressing.

1 Corinthians 11:28-32 But a man must examine himself. . . . He will receive judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

Self-examination is absolutely essential if we are going to grow in holiness. Over time we all develop blind spots. A blind spot is a sin habit or character flaw that we have gotten so used to that we don’t see it, or at least we don’t see it as a sin or as a problem in our life. Self-examination asks and answers the question, “ who am I?”

My best and most accurate self-examination times take place when I write in my journal. When I write about my behavior, it is easy to step back and see myself from a third-person perspective without the excuses, blaming, and justification. As I regularly practice this basic discipline the things that I repeatedly do become obvious. I confess them to God as sin, and I work out a plan to conquer them.

One of the biggest problems Christians have as they pursue holiness is their judgmental attitude toward others. It is hard to move towards being holy as Jesus is holy without noticing all those around us who are standing still or even going backward. It is a tricky thing to remain humble and non-judgmental as we conqueror sin habits in our life, but we must do it; otherwise, we will go right back where we were and probably even further.

There are several keys to remaining humble and non-judgmental as we grow. The first is that we recognize that we supplied nothing in the pursuit of our righteousness accept our submission and humility at the beginning of the journey. There is not much to get prideful about if He did it all. This admission and attitude is essential to getting His power and in keeping it.

The second key is to be constantly examining our own life for character flaws and sin. We need to be ruthless in this step of our journey towards Christ-like behavior. Our flesh is notoriously bad about excusing, blaming, ignoring, justifying, and pretending. We tend to compare ourselves with other people because then we look pretty good, but what we need to do is compare ourselves with Jesus not others.

As we examine our own life honestly with no pretending, justifying, or blaming we then need to confess all known sin to God. To confess sin means that we own it, totally, we did it, no excuses. When we do that God forgives and cleanses and we grow.

When I was a kid growing up on the farm one of the chores we had was irrigating the pastures and hay fields. We didn’t use sprinklers, we flood irrigated. There was a ditch running next to the various fields and we would put in a plastic sheet that would act as a dam and the water would run over the bank of the ditch into the field. My job was to walk around with a shovel and “herd” the water so that every square inch of ground got water on it. As Dad would give me instructions on how to irrigate with a shovel he would repeatedly say, “just remember, water always flows downhill, never up.”

The only way we can become holy and righteous and grow more every day is if we have God’s power. Christians talk a lot about God’s power, but the observable truth is, not very many have it.

The next step in our pursuit of holiness is to understand that “God’s power flows to commitment, the stronger the commitment the stronger the power.” A commitment is a promise that we make to God. When we commit ourselves to Him we are declaring Him our Lord, our master, our king, and our boss. We are telling Him that we will do His will no matter how hard it is, that we will obey Him, no matter what.

Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Romans 6:13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Psalms 37:5-6 Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light.

Luke 9:23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

To take up our cross is to admit that we are not in charge of our lives; Jesus is, and we need to take up our cross every day. Jesus did this very thing in the Garden of Gethsemane as He faced the cross.

Luke 22:41-42 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Every morning I pray a prayer of commitment to Jesus, presenting myself to Him as His servant confessing that I have no power and asking for His power to fill me for the day.