Anything But Boring

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. —Galatians 5:22–23

Perhaps being a self-controlled and upright person sounds like someone who never has any fun. Someone who’s boring, rigid, uptight. You’ve probably known people like that. But people with Spirit-produced, grace-enabled self-control are anything but boring. They aren’t slaves to passions and impulses. They’re free to love and serve God and others, free to enjoy His greatest gifts. Their lives are winsome, compelling reflections of the goodness and loveliness of Christ.

Or maybe this way of thinking and living sounds exhausting to you—always struggling to rein in your flesh. But thankfully, God hasn’t left us to acquire self-control by sheer willpower and determination. This mindset is initiated, produced, and enabled by His Spirit and His grace.

That said, to be self-controlled requires effort and vigilance. And we tap into the enabling grace of God as we take advantage of the means He has provided for our transformation and growth.

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Adorned: Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel Together

©2017 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Scripture taken from The CSB