The word implies a setting out to change for the better. I will use my time better than I did last year. I will not spend as much time saying trivial things on Facebook. I do not need to know what even my best friend had for dinner. I wonder if you even bother to make resolutions, knowing that you won’t have the self-discipline to keep them. So you give them up on January 3.
Self-control is biblical
But self-control is a biblical word and is linked with other qualities. ‘ .... for God gave us not a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control’ (2 Timothy 1.7, ESV). The danger with this verse is that it turns us all into super self-confident, all-conquering, problem-solvers who never put a foot wrong and never have a stressful day. I have never been like that and have often had days where I fail to love the people I work with because they’ve stitched me up or let me down. As for a ‘spirit of power’, I have had days where I feel completely impotent and unable to see a way forward.
The verse in Timothy is worth another look. It starts by reminding us that the ‘spirit’ we have is God-given. It is not something we have to drum up every morning. God gives us his spirit, which gives us his power, so we should not fear. I have met many youth ministers who fear the consequences of what they plan and do. Will it work? Will the parents moan? Will the old people dislike the youth ministry even more? Such feelings can paralyse people into a spirit of fear and we end up taking ultra-safe and wrong options or doing nothing. But God has not given us a spirit of fear because we serve an all-powerful and sovereign God who gives us something better.
