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Do you feel vulnerable in this world of ours?  

I do.

It feels like we have a nation without walls.

I know that my future grandchildren will grow up in this world.  Ouch…  

I must remind myself that God chose me to be alive at this time, and He has a plan.

My job is to learn what He wants me to experience with Him on the daily.

Today, I want to share a scripture with you from Proverbs 25:28…yes, it comes straight out of the book of wisdom…so it’s going to be good, but it’s probably going to sting a bit.  Bring it Lord.

“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” 

What did you hear?

First, I heard that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit.  It doesn’t originate from human means.

Second, I heard like a vulnerable city, we must have defenses.  A wall around an ancient city was designed to keep out the enemy. Judges at the gates determined who should be allowed in and who should remain outside.  Soldiers and gates enforced those decisions.

If you know anything about Galatians 5, it’s the heavenly garden where we learn about the fruit of the spirit.

Self-Control is tucked away with all those other fruity virtues that God has for us.  He knew we would need it.

Just like natural fruit comes in all shapes and sizes, I believe the spiritual fruit that will sustain our lives is no different.  

Is your fruit green, shriveled, puny, or thriving? 

If we could assign a shape to each of these spiritual virtues listed in Galatians, what do you think they would they look like?

What’s the largest fruit you can think of?

A watermelon.  Yep that’s what Self-Control would be, right?

Gentleness might look more like the size of a cantaloupe.

Unfortunately, there’s no market where we can acquire the fruit of the Spirit — instead, we need to become the orchard where these virtues grow within our souls.

We do not become a Christian on our own… and we cannot grow on our own.

The fruit of the Spirit is the change in our character that comes about because of the Holy Spirit’s work in us.

So, just sending a friendly reminder to check to see if we are aiding and abetting the enemy as he is busy planning to restrict our growth because we lack self-control. 

We often would like the fruit of the Spirit to appear instantaneously in our lives
but friends, even the fruit we consume in our smoothie drinks requires a great deal of time to grow.

“If someone prays for SELF-CONTROL, do you think God gives them self-control? Or does he give them the opportunity to be self-controlled?”

As the Spirit gives us self-control, we can refuse sin.

We need our righteous defenses to go up.

We need to put up some walls against false beliefs.

We need to protect ourselves.

Self-control restricts the indulgence of our foolish desires, and we find the liberty to love and live as we were meant to.