Here are my teaching notes. (Please understand that my teaching notes are just that and are not a complete lesson.) Feel free to add your comments or ask any questions you might have. I may not have the answers, but together we'll turn to God's Word and find what He has to say. I firmly believe that God's Word addresses every issue either directly or indirectly.
Without further ado ... my teaching notes on lesson 1 ...
We approached the subject with the following statement, 'Our self-control, self-discipline and self-restraint or lack of it affects every area of our lives' and then we shared our thoughts on it. Then we talked about what lack of the three 'self's' might look like in real life ...
Poor Health ... Our health, to an extent, will be directly related to how well we control our appetites, take care of ourselves and control our laziness.
Poor Relationships ... Our relationships will be affected by how well we control our tempers, words, actions and in marriage, sexual desires.
Unfaithfulness to God ... we get to choose every day whether we remain faithful to God. Do we control the influences that have the potential to pull us away from Him? We also talked about Christians who neglect services for a reason that they would never dream of missing work for.
Poor Work Ethics ... dishonesty in the workplace, etc.
Self-indulgent living ... doing what makes 'me' happy instead of what is pleasing to God.
We used each of these categories as a springboard and had some really good discussion.
We talked about the fact that self-discipline, self-control and self-restraint is what we need the most but is often what we want the least.
We also talked about the fact that God needs self-disciplined
men and women.
Then we looked at the following Scripture ...
Proverbs 16:32 (NASB) … He who is slow to anger is
better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who captures a
city.
Proverbs 16:32 (NKJV) … He who is slow to anger is
better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
‘slow to anger’ … suppress' its motion and doesn’t let anger rule, doesn’t take or seek revenge, shows
himself ready to forgive injuries
‘he who rules his spirit’ … controls his own desires, affections and passions
Patience is better than power, and controlling one’s temper is better than 'capturing a city'.
The person that restrains his or her thoughts and actions is far greater than he who wins a battle in war. That's a powerful statement and shows us the importance placed on restraining ourselves in every area of our lives.
Sadly, our society and culture have become a 'me' focused world which flies in the face of all that God teaches us in His Word.
Victory over self is hard! It calls for self-control, self-discipline and self-restraint.
Self is a worthy opponent and a strong enemy. We should never underestimate self.
We wrapped the class up by sharing ways to have better self-control, self-discipline and self-restraint. Some of those ways were ...
Being a student of God's Word. God's Word is an excellent tutor and when we find ourselves struggling, we need to run to His Word. I have absolutely no hope of conquering the three 'self's' without the help of His Word. We talk to God through prayer, and He talks to us through His Word.
Prayer. Admitting to God and asking for His help when we're struggling with the three 'self's' is crucial.
Fellowshipping with other faithful Christians. It's harder to make everything about 'self' when we have regular fellowship with other Christians.
We talked about what not having self-control, self-discipline and self-restraint might look like in one's life vs what having these three looked like in our lives. We all decided that we would rather have the consequences of having the three 'self's' in our lives rather than the consequences of not having them in our lives!
It was a good class, and we left it knowing that we were not alone in this struggle and that there was hope and help for the journey!
Next week, we're going to talk about controlling what comes out of our mouths ... self-control, self-discipline, and self-restraint definitely applies to what we say!
There will be several classes in this series, typically I will post them on Sunday evening or Monday of each week. I hope you'll come back for more.
May God be glorified in all that we do!
patsy @ From This Heart of Mine
