I was not Charlie Kirk’s target audience. And yet, when I got the news of his assassination while on vacation, I was floored in the worst way possible. Gutted, even.
Like many of you, it led me down a path of discovery and really taking in what he had to say for the first time. He had many thoughts on many things and was a well of knowledge. But he placed extreme emphasis on a concept that you don’t hear much talk of today: Self-control.
This was interesting to me. Many times he was speaking in the context of young men and finding a mate. I’m well past that time and happily married, but it makes no difference. His basic point was that self-control is a quality that ladies are looking for in a man, yet they don’t quite know how to articulate. But he was (perhaps unknowingly) making a larger point as well: many of the societal issues we have today could we thwarted and prevented with a focus on self-control.
The more I noticed he was focused on this, the more I decided to focus on it myself, and have since been studying much about the subject, listening to sermons, hearing what the Bible has to say, reading books, etc.
One of my favorite insights thus far comes from the late, great Dr. Charles Stanley. He said:
God has provided his very very best for you… I didn’t say the best was easy—it’s difficult sometimes to have God’s best. But what’s better than God’s best? Nothing.
In other words, God wants his very best for you, and your lack of self-control will get in the way of that every time. The Bible frames this as walking in the flesh vs. the Spirit. If you spend all your time sowing to the flesh, you will repeat its consequences. If you instead spending your time sowing to the Spirit, you will reap his rewards—God’s best.
Here’s my argument: There is little you can focus on in life more important than self-control. It solves problems with eating, substance abuse, addiction, arguments with your spouse, failure to create good habits, and so much more. You could try to trick yourself into becoming better at each of those things (which I have tried over and over again), or you can submit to the will of God through cultivating a sense of self-control.
Self-control prevents a host of daily battles from plaguing your thoughts, troubling your days, and receiving God’s best for your life.
