Today's Unglued Blog Update
Another one of mostly my rewording & adding some of my own to what Lysa said. I just think she hits the nail right on the head!
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ~1 Peter 5:8
Quoting God's Word in the present tense infuses my heart with holy restraint & diffuses my reaction so I don't spew. There is a difference between self-control & holy restraint.
Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's the external expression of my relationship with God. Self-control looks pretty on the outside. It's like this, I can keep a smile on my face & say a few verses & have the appropriate behavior in front of others as long as everyone is doing/saying what they are supposed to. But when I am pushed just a little (or touched in referring to the cake), I am just like a cake that has not finished baking all the way....
...I explode (implode) onto anyone who has pushed me.
Holy restraint is the seed of this fruit (self-control). It's the internal experience of living with Christ & really applying His truths in my life. Back to my cake example (because I love food): No matter how someone treats me or what they say to me, holy restraint is like a cake that has finished baking all the way through & through.
No matter how many people try to take a bite out of me, or who tries to take a bite out of me, I keep it all together on the outside and the inside.
It's deciding I'm going not just going to ingest His truths by taking them in & feeling good about them for a few minutes. I'm going to digest His truths by making them part of who I am & how I live. There's a big difference between ingesting truth & digesting it.
I must spend time with God, letting His truths become part of who I am & how I live. That's what it means to have an internal experience with Him. Only then will I develop holy restraint. This holy restraint will hold me back when I want to aggressively charge ahead. It will help me hold my tongue when I want to cut loose instantly with the yelling. It will help me pause before blasting someone in an emotional tirade.
Once I develop that holy restraint from an internal experience with God, I can have external expressions that honor God. I must remember, holy restraint is the seed that produces the fruit of self-control. This self-control is the external experience--the evidence--of a well-done center that helps me to respond in more godly ways (thinking back to that pretty cake when those two precious girls try to take bite out of me...pushing their limits as they learn).
So....God's Word--His divine communication at work in me internally--really can help me externally when I'm tempted to be an exploder who blames.
Stay tuned for my next Unglued blog update about Finding the Quiet.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ~1 Peter 5:8
Quoting God's Word in the present tense infuses my heart with holy restraint & diffuses my reaction so I don't spew. There is a difference between self-control & holy restraint.
Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's the external expression of my relationship with God. Self-control looks pretty on the outside. It's like this, I can keep a smile on my face & say a few verses & have the appropriate behavior in front of others as long as everyone is doing/saying what they are supposed to. But when I am pushed just a little (or touched in referring to the cake), I am just like a cake that has not finished baking all the way....
Holy restraint is the seed of this fruit (self-control). It's the internal experience of living with Christ & really applying His truths in my life. Back to my cake example (because I love food): No matter how someone treats me or what they say to me, holy restraint is like a cake that has finished baking all the way through & through.
It's deciding I'm going not just going to ingest His truths by taking them in & feeling good about them for a few minutes. I'm going to digest His truths by making them part of who I am & how I live. There's a big difference between ingesting truth & digesting it.
I must spend time with God, letting His truths become part of who I am & how I live. That's what it means to have an internal experience with Him. Only then will I develop holy restraint. This holy restraint will hold me back when I want to aggressively charge ahead. It will help me hold my tongue when I want to cut loose instantly with the yelling. It will help me pause before blasting someone in an emotional tirade.
Once I develop that holy restraint from an internal experience with God, I can have external expressions that honor God. I must remember, holy restraint is the seed that produces the fruit of self-control. This self-control is the external experience--the evidence--of a well-done center that helps me to respond in more godly ways (thinking back to that pretty cake when those two precious girls try to take bite out of me...pushing their limits as they learn).
So....God's Word--His divine communication at work in me internally--really can help me externally when I'm tempted to be an exploder who blames.
Stay tuned for my next Unglued blog update about Finding the Quiet.
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