Growing in Self-Control and Perseverance

You need self-control with credit cards. Are they a good thing and a convenience? Yeah, they can be. Can they also get you into a lot of trouble? Oh yeah. What’s the difference between those two things? Self-control.

I once counseled someone who had zero self-control and got every credit card known to man. Forget just Amex, Visa, Mastercard, the big ones; they had credit cards that I’d never even heard of before. They qualified for a card; they got it. They ended up thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt, spread out over many credit cards. Every month, to keep afloat, they would pay $25 on each card or whatever the bare minimum was. The interest on those cards, though, was gouging them. They were going nowhere because of their lack of self-control.

Maybe you don’t struggle to have self-control with your credit cards, but the problem of self-control exists in some way for all of us.

Haven’t you ever heard the Holy Spirit say to you, “Don’t join in that conversation. That is not a good one…”? Next thing you know, this is coming out of your mouth: “Yeah, well, you know what my opinion of her is?” We all struggle with self-control in some area.   

Look at this command for believers. “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness…” (2 Peter 1:4-6, NIV). We all struggle in many ways, but we have to be steadfast in our work of maturing. We have to endure and not let ourselves be worn down by the pressure of hard times.

_{Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.}