Philippians 4:5
" Let everyone see how reasonable and gentle you are. The Lord is near!"

We are to make sure that we are level in what we believe, do, say, eat, etc and have self-control while staying level. Everything we do should be done with self-control! It is very important to have that in your life. Another word for Self-Control is:

TEM'PERANCE, n. [L. temperantia, from tempero.] 1. Moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control. 2. Patience; calmness; sedateness; moderation of passion.

Galatians 5:22-24
 " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things."

When I studied Meekness, I found how all the different fruit of the Spirit are pretty much the same thing. Temperance is like that too. It has it's own character, but it incorporates Patience with it. Temperance is basically moderation and self-control with patience. If we think about it, it takes patience to have self-control and be moderate in things.

I think having temperance is something that gets overlooked in our lives. Honestly, I couldn't figure out what temperance was for a while. I know now and I know that it is something I need to work on in my life. There are things I could moderate better than I do. It will probably be hard to moderate things because we just want to do what we want to do. We need to understand though that God wants us to do things with temperance and we just need to do it.

Temperance can be a bridle for our flesh. Since its a fruit of the Spirit, temperance can help us pull back our flesh nature, so that we can be more patient, more moderate and have better self-control through the Holy Spirit.

If we look at our lives, I am sure we can all find something that need to be moderated better; something that needs to be controlled more. Maybe its moderating work and play, or computer time, or reading, or tv/movies, etc. Everything in our lives needs to be done in moderation. As we grow in the Lord more, and the Spirit bears the fruit in us, then everything will come together. We will have temperance in our lives, and things will be moderated the way they should be. Temperance is being able to moderate with patience through the Holy Spirit. The self-control aspect of it is to let God be in control. As a human, I will error in my ways, and I know I don't have very good self-control, but through God I know I can handle anything that comes my way and be able to overcome it. That is where we will be able to have temperance enough to do everything in a Godly moderation.

This week, make a list of things you do and estimate how much time you do them. Pray and seek God to see if He would have you change the way you do some things.

It is encouraging to me when I find something that I know I can work on better in my life. I want to be all and everything God created me to be and when I find something that I am convicted to do better or change in my life, I am very glad that God opened my eyes to it.
I was so encouraged too by what Peter tells us that needs to happen when we have temperance in our lives:

2 Peter 1:5-7
"For this very reason, try your hardest to furnish your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love."

©AmandaDixon2009

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