Elder, are you self-controlled?
At one of our Elder’s meetings at Banstead Community Church each month I encourage us to keep watch over our lives by highlighting one of the qualifications for eldership and drawing out questions to ask ourselves.
Here are some notes on 1 Timothy 3:2 and being self-controlled.
“An overseer, therefore, must be… self-controlled.”
Being self-controlled is about not being mastered or controlled by self but instead mastering or controlling self.
How do you respond to stress / fatigue / tiredness / conflict / anxiety / disappointment?
Where do you look to get a release / happiness / peace / comfort?
There are two ways we can respond. We can either pray to the flesh or we can pray to the Spirit.
How you pray will determine whether you’ll act with self-control or not.
Praying to the flesh won’t lead to self-control
We pray to the flesh when seek a release via food / alcohol / pornography / computer games / TV / gambling / angry outburst.
Praying to the flesh leads to distraction and defeat (when it becomes a pattern or lifestyle), and if we are not careful, disqualification.
Praying to the Spirit will lead to self-control
Why?
Because we are going to the giver of self-control (it is a fruit of the Spirit) and this leads to getting the gift of self-control.
Prayer stops you acting impulsively, it delays gratification, and through pray you take control of your mind and actions.
Elder, what is your danger? What is your particular struggle? What is your go-to prayer to the flesh? Is it distancing you from praying to the Spirit now? Is it defeating you so that you never pray to God asking for the Spirit’s help? Is it disqualifying you?
Keeping watch over our lives means asking whether we are self-controlled. If the answer is consistently “No” we might want to question whether we are still qualified.