A Spirit of Self-Discipline

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-disciple.” - 2 Timothy 1:7 
 
 
As we come to a close looking at 2 Timothy 1:7, we see the final element of what God has given us. We know He has not given us a spirit of fear. Instead, He has given us a spirit of POWER, LOVE, and SELF-DISCIPLINE. 
 
We have looked at what it means to live in a spirit of power and love, but what does it look like to live in a spirit of self-discipline, you ask? It means to choose His Way, rather than our way, the world’s way. As humans, our nature is sin. We were born with a sinful nature.  
 
But as believers, we have been “born-again” Though it is not our natural human nature, we have been given the Holy Spirit. That was the gift Jesus gave us to live inside of us after accepting Him as our Lord and Savior. With the power of the Holy Spirit, we can choose to live with SELF-DISCIPLINE. This is what God has given us! 
 
Proverbs 25:28 tells us, “A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.” When you lack self-discipline, you make yourself susceptible to all of the enemy's attacks. But when you practice self-discipline, you are choosing to live out the Lord’s will for your life, which we know brings both earthly and eternal rewards. 
 
Practicing self-disciple really comes down to asking yourself this question: Is what I want now worth sacrificing what I want most? If you think about it, most of the time when we lack self-discipline, were are undermining what we want MOST for what we want IN THE MOMENT, because we know we cannot have what we want most just yet. It takes time. 
 
So instead, we go for quick and cheap forms of pleasure. We want the artificial version instead of the real thing. But self-discipline says, “No, even though this sounds good right now, I am not going to give in to this temptation. I am waiting for what God has for me because it is far greater than what the enemy is trying to bait me into right now.”  
 
This might seem difficult, but the POWER of SELF-DISCIPLINE is inside of you! The Lord has given you a spirit not of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline!