Self-control:

Hello, I'm Howard Merrell.  I'm lacking in self-control.  Maybe we should start a Twelve-Step Program.   My admission is true on any level; just ask my wife or those who work with me, but that isn't my point.  A loss of temper, overeating, failure to do what we know we should do but never get around to survey would show I'm not the worst of the  lot, but I'm sure an honest evaluation would show others who are in better control of self than yours truly. I'm somewhere in the vast horde of those struggle with temptation, who are to one degree or another controlled by habits that ought to be broken, and who find themselves making the admission, "I did it again." I've often thought that "self-control" for the Christian is an incorrect term.  Just think about the part of self that each of us finds hardest to control.    ". . . no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison." (James 3:8) David, realizing this truth, looks to the Lord to do for him what he cannot do for himself.  "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips." (Psalm 141:3)   Galatians 5:23 tells us that one of the aspects of the fruit that the Spirit of God produces in the life of those who "Walk in the Spirit" and are "led by the Spirit," is self-control.  (Galatians 5:16-18) So, is it self-control or Holy Spirit control?  If you put the passages I referenced above together with Ephesians 5:18 , which says we are to be controlled by the Spirit,  perhaps we ought to call it a "Spirit enabled ability to control self." Whatever we call it.  I need it.   Lord, I confess my sin, to get out of the way, yield to You, and commit myself to be in Your word and let Your word change me.  My desire is to be controlled by Your Spirit so I can control myself.   It's STTA.