Christian Healing Ministry - Devotionals

Devotional for March 26, 2026

SELF CONTROL

SCRIPTURE READING - 📖 Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law.

Additional Verses

📖 Genesis 13:1-14; Proverbs 18:21; Matthew 4:1-11; Galatians 5:16-26

From the day you become a Christian through receiving Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior of your life, and you were baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire according to Luke 3:16, it is your responsibility to build your character into the character of Jesus Christ. You do this by cultivating into yourself the nine virtues of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. While all the nine virtues are so central to a mature Christian character, today we are going to look at the virtue of self-control. Jesus Christ illustrated the virtue of self-control whenever He faced opposition from the devil, the Jewish rulers and even when they nailed Him to the Cross. While many people today claim the Christian identity and some are even in Church leadership positions, their lives are a manifestation of anger and hatred against their family members, neighbors and even against those they are leading in Churches. Many are full of un-forgiveness. When the devil tempted Jesus Christ to turn stone into bread, or to bow to him or even to throw Himself down from the roof of the temple, Jesus Christ refused in all the three temptations. He defeated the devil by faithfully declaring the Word of God. When you make Jesus Christ your standard, you will certainly have the virtue of self-control at work in your life. Once you fail to have self-control, you will certainly lose all the other eight virtues of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Jesus Christ endured pain at the Cross because He remained focused on the Word of God. He never yielded to all that was going on around Him even when those around Him mocked and abused Him. If you want to see the highest level of self-control, look at Jesus Christ at the Cross. All the violence and lawlessness you see around you today is the result of lack of self-control in both Christians and non-Christians. Self-control is a special gift of the Spirit of God as it is the product of the time you spend meditating upon the Word of God and applying such Word to your every situation. Today I am therefore asking you to pray to God for this important virtue of self-control in your life. Alleluia!

Prayer

Thank You Father for teaching me that without the virtue of self-control it is not possible for me to have the other eight virtues of the fruit of the Spirit. I thank You for Your Son Jesus Christ from whose life I can learn the right way to exercise self-control. May You therefore grant me this special virtue of self-control so that I may not lose my salvation. In Jesus Christ’s mighty name I pray. Amen.