Wed the 28th

1 Peter 5:8

⁸Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

 

Self-control…..it is where we all must start. We cannot help others if we cannot control ourselves. If we cannot control our selves we cannot love ourselves, if we do not love ourselves, we cannot truly love others. If we do not love others, we cannot effectively serve God, Christ, or our fellow man. It is a theme that runs through out the Bible, yet it is a concept we look at last. We love to look into other peoples backyards and point out the trash, the things that we might do differently if it was ours, we are always eager to go and help “fix” whatever is broken. Perhaps we notice all that they have that we do not.  Seldom do we take the time needed to look at our own backyard. More often than not, ours is in no better condition. While we are so busy looking at others, the devil is prowling in our back yard searching us out. We make for easy prey when we provide so much cover for the devil to hide behind. We must work to clean up our own backyard first, and that takes a HUGE amount of self-control. When we work to remove the clutter, we have a better field of view to see the devil coming. When we work to remove things like lust, pride, envy, anger, and deception from our lives, we find that self-control is easier to attain. These types of emotions are the devils hiding spots, they feed on us, and urge us to “let go”. We cannot let ourselves walk into that snare. Through the sacrifice of Christ we find the strength needed to rid our backyards of this clutter. Then we can go on to help our neighbor, then we can start to love ourselves, then we can fall on our knees and give thanks and praise to the Lord for all He has done without having to worry about the lion jumping on our backs. Remember while we are busy looking into someone else’s backyard……someone is busy looking into ours. Work for self-control in all areas of your life so that you might clear enough space to allow the Holy Spirit to do all of the good works within you. We have but one life to live for the Lord, let us work to make it a worthy one.

 

May you be filled with the love of Christ,

Brian