When we think that God would like disciples to be composed, how do we control our dispositions? This devotion looks how we control our spirits and hearts.
Nuggets
- Our disposition is given to us by God Himself.
- God expects us to maintain a sober disposition – not one extreme or the other – so that we showcase what He does for us.
- Our hearts are our foundation.
- Unfortunately, our self-esteem is usually based on what others see of us.
Oh, wow. We finished the What I Believe series! But we still haven’t mined all of the points from Vincent’s sermon.
This year, we are looking at self-discipline. We are using Vincent’s The Lesson of Ripeness sermon to look at the need to grow in our relationship with God. We morphed learning enough to be a teacher into determining some areas we need to grow so we can be mature disciples.
Vincent made a comment that really struck a chord with me. He wrote, “And time ought to have ripened faith in the sense of restfulness. We count it strange if natural manhood does not bring with it increased composure, tranquillity, balance. Shall we count it any less strange if, with the lapse of time, Christian manhood does not become better poised, more restful and quiet, less easily thrown off its balance?”
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Do we consider our navigation on the sanctification road a restful journey? Or are we constantly thrown here and there by Satan’s onslaught?
For the next couple of weeks, we are going to look at the composure, tranquillity, and balance aspect of the life of a mature disciple. We are going to start with composure.
Devotions in the Maturity Is Composure series
How Do Mature Disciples Control Our Dispositions?
How Do Mature Disciples Control Conflict?
How Do Mature Disciples Control Anger?
How Do Mature Disciples Control Envy?
Let's Put It into Context #1
Composure is a mental steadiness, keeping a even temper under stress.
We each have a spirit — and we are not just talking about the Holy Spirit. Yes, He is within us, but we have a spirit, too.
Saurin explained what our spirit is. He wrote, “Spirit is used sometimes for the thoughts of the mind, the passions of the heart, the emotions of sense, phantoms of imagination, and illusions of concupiscence.”
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Our spirit is that core of us that houses our emotions and character. It is, essentially, the us in us.
We need to control that spirit — not have it control us. If our spirit controls us, Satan is controlling us.
Let's Put It into Context #2
“Patience is better than power, and controlling one’s emotions, than capturing a city” (Prov. 16: 32 CSB)
I haven’t had much experience in having cities captured. Saurin had to help me out on this one. We would say that someone was living on their laurels.
Remember a couple of devotions back, Solomon was talking about receiving garlands for obeying our parents? “for they will be a garland of favor on your head and pendants around your neck” (Prov. 1: 9 CSB).
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
These wreaths were made of laurels. Living on our laurels means we are satisfied with the accomplishments we already made and are done trying for more.
Controlling Our Disposition
“A person who does not control his temper is like a city whose wall is broken down” (Prov. 25: 28 CSB)
We generally think of temper as it is associated with tantrum. We are really, really angry, and everyone in the surrounding counties know about it.
Temper also has other meanings, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
- “heat of mind or emotion : proneness to anger : PASSION”
- “calmness of mind : COMPOSURE”
- “state of feeling or frame of mind at a particular time usually dominated by a single strong emotion”
- “a characteristic cast of mind or state of feeling : DISPOSITION”
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Those don’t necessarily limit themselves to anger. We are going to be looking at our composure with regard to our disposition. Our disposition is our temperamental makeup.
This disposition is given to us by God Himself. We each have an individual character by which we can be known. This character is what makes us us.
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Controlling Our Spirit
Gerard said that another name for temper or disposition is spirit. Saurin explained what it means to control our spirit.
Saurin wrote, “To rule the spirit is never to suffer one’s self to be prejudiced by false ideas, always to see things in their true point of view, to regulate our hatred and our love, our desires and our inactivity, exactly according to the knowledge we have obtained after mature deliberation that objects are worthy of our esteem or deserve our aversion that they are worth obtaining or proper to be neglected.”
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Self-control means moderation. Shedd likened moderation to sobriety. Sober is a character trait distinguished by self-control, genuineness, and sound moral judgment.
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Macmillan wrote that we get the ability to control our spirit from God. Once we rule our spirit, we can rule our lives.
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Abernethy noted that our spirit has a natural sovereignty. The reasons for this sovereignty were
- We have a conscience.
- We can discern right from wrong (duty from sin).
- We can distinguish between moral good and evil.
- Praise comes from the moral good.
- Disapproval comes from the evil.
- We have natural inclinations associated with particular events.
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Controlling Our Heart
“A tranquil heart is life to the body, but jealousy is rottenness to the bones” (Prov. 14: 30 CSB).
We have to control our heart. What we are going for is a sound heart.
The greatest commandment tells us — in some version — to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind (Deut. 6: 5; Mt. 22: 37; Mk. 12: 30; Lk. 10: 27). Heart is always mentioned first and is always mentioned.
Saurin notes that an aspect of controlling our heart is recreating ourselves. We have to choose what character traits we are going to exhibit. Are we going to respond in anger in a given situation or compassion? When we choose compassion, we make ourselves into a better person — because we are choosing to be like God.
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Controlling Our Self-Love
Ooo, baby. Don’t we do that? We think we control something the importance of the city, so we go full peacock. We really jack up the love we have for ourselves.
Our self-esteem is usually based on what others see of us. Fancy clothes. Fancy cars. Fancy house. Fancy jobs.
Questionable character.
We have to be able to rule our passions, including how we feel about ourselves. If we are passionate for something God has called a sin and our self-worth is tied up in that, it will be easier for us to drown out the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Instead, we need to imitate God. We want to love ourselves because we reflect His character.
In the Sunday a Morning Bible Study devotions, we’ve seen that a major theme of Proverbs is wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge, discernment, and good sense that leads to goodness and virtue, which can be applied to life.
Possessing this wisdom — God’s wisdom — changes our character to be more like His. This wisdom, coupled with understanding, increases our ability to be cautious (another virtue).
Rouse made a very good point. He wrote, “To exercise rule over others is more of an art and policy than a moral virtue.”
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We think all of the skill and glory come from being the leader and champion of the city. It really doesn’t.
Making the Connections
Oh, yeah. We don’t do a good job of controlling our hearts and emotions. This is especially true when we are locked in the spiritual tornadoes. Trees, cars, animals, houses — you name it — are all winging by our head at breakneck speed.
We’re just trying to stay upright in one spot. Too many times, we are focused on the storm.
Controlling our emotions — working on our disposition — means focusing on God. We have to follow His lead.
One reason why we don’t control our hearts and emotions is because, sometimes, we have the mistaken notion that self-control is bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. God wants us to control ourselves because, if we don’t, we are led into sin.
But just think about it. Isn’t ruling ourselves more important than ruling cities? Yeah, we get the kick of being top dog ruling cities, but if we rule ourselves, we get the kick of having the top character.
Won’t we think more of ourselves if we have top character?
I know. That is the exact opposite of what the worldview is telling us. It tells us to be successful. Top of the ladder. A-list celebrities. Star quarterback.
No, we just want to reflect God in all we do.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
Ooo, baby. Control is all about self-discipline. Growing our character is all about self-discipline.
How Do We Apply This?
First off, we have to ABCD if we haven’t already.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What is our goal? Self-mastery. Newman defined self-mastery as “… the harmonious action of sensibilities, of all our mental appreciations, of all our physical functions, in harmony with the purpose for which they were created.”
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Control takes exercise. We have to do the reps to condition ourselves — and loose the excess sinful nature. Exercise makes it a habit.
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I know. That is a lot of selfs in there: self-discipline, self-control, self-mastery. But it really isn’t about self. It is about God.
The only part of self in this is self-denial. We have to give up what we want and what we think is right to follow God’s laws and commandments. We have to follow His Will and purposes.
We have to set down our wants and desires and focus on God’s wants and desires.
We have to remember what Newman said about self-consecration. He wrote, “Conscious weakness is more often an element of real strength and victory than conscious power, for weakness may lean on the strength of God.”
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In order to accomplish this self-mastery, we have to seek God.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
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We control our emotions and dispositions by submitting fully to God.
Father God. Your ways are better than our ways. You love us with an unfailing love. We submit our hopes and desires to You. Grow us so that our character becomes like Yours. Amen.
What do you think?
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