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“Add To Your Faith | Self-Control & The Holy Spirit”
Categories: Add To Your Faith | 2025
It’s tough tolerating mystery and ambiguity. We like to understand exactly how things work. But sometimes, God asks us to be comfortable with a little ambiguity in spiritual things. In Matthew 4, Jesus says that when a farmer plants a seed, he doesn’t know how the seed grows. But he plants it and goes to bed knowing that it will, even though he may not understand how that works (Matthew 4:26-29). Just because we don’t fully understand something doesn’t mean we cannot make use of it or benefit from it.
That’s the principle we ought to keep in mind when we think about self-control and the Holy Spirit.
The scriptures are clear that Christians are strengthened by the Holy Spirit for greater self-control. Paul tells us that self-control is the fruit that the Spirit produces in us (Galatians 5:22-23), that, in baptism, we are renewed by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-7), and he prays for the Ephesians to be strengthened with power in the inner man through the Spirit (Ephesians 3:16). Remember also that Paul tells the Romans that it is through the Holy Spirit that Christians put to death the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13). There’s no denying that the Spirit strengthens Christians.
Yet, there is ambiguity in that; we don’t fully understand how that works. That’s why we need to remember that principle: just because we don’t fully understand something doesn’t mean we cannot benefit from it. Of course, we must be careful not to abuse that ambiguity. Sometimes our attempts to clear up ambiguity lead us to false conclusions (e.g. being strengthened doesn’t mean that He takes over your body and overrides free will). Still, Christians ought to appreciate that we are strengthened by the Spirit and take advantage of that gift even if we don’t fully comprehend it.
Like the farmer who plants, waters, and trusts that God is doing his invisible work to bring about growth, we trust God’s invisible work in us, even if we don’t understand it completely. So let’s pray, “God, strengthen my soul in your Spirit.” And let’s be assured that as we add self-control, God will “keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful” (II Peter 1:8).
- Jonthan Banning
