Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. (Titus 2:6 ESV)
Self-control
God has given (and repeatedly gives) His people the ability and desire to love, be joyful, pursue peace, be patient, be kind, be good, be faithful, and be gentle.
We are not very good at using those gifts.
A while ago, a family gave me a mandolin. I was trying to learn how to play, but had trouble. My fingers almost have muscle memory for guitar chords, and mandolin chords were obviously different. And my new mandolin chords were messing with my ability to play guitar chords without thinking.
It was hard, and I was not very good at it.
Playing at a dinner, when I finished the rote-memorized song, an observer whispered to me, “wow, two of those chords were beyond you!” It was embarrassing, but correct.
I almost gave up.
And then, when I was complaining about the tricksy mandolin, a musician friend told me that the mandolin strings and chords were not simply randomly different than a guitar… but the mandolin was exactly the same as a guitar, but upside down.
Suddenly the mandolin became playable.
All I needed was the key.
The key to the fruits of the spirit is self-control.
We can do all of the other gifts, if we have self-control. It seems rather obvious. We need to choose to love, find joy, and the rest.
And that seems hard. We don’t do very well at them.
But another fruit from the spirit is self-control.
God enables us, God strengthens us, God empowers us.
It starts by surrendering our days to Him. We struggle with the fruits when we try to do them ourselves. But surrendering to God releases the other fruit.
Self-control, also, is a fruit.