말보다 말씀! 빚보다 빛!

12/14

Good Friday to our Woori Church Youth! The school semester is winding down and it’s Friday the 13th!! No worries, it’s just another day that God has bestowed upon us to live in His grace. This week we will be discussing, self control. What comes to mind when you hear self control? Can we achieve self control by ourselves??Why is it important to have self control??? Just one more week of school left for most of you guys. Finish strong and ask Him who makes everything possible for help and guidance. See y’all Sunday! 

Self control? Hmm...

Proverbs 18:21 says,  "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits."

Don’t know about you guys, but self control is one of the hardest fruits for me to keep under control! One example is like what Proverbs 18:21 says. Even Jesus taught is that what goes into us(He was talking about food) is never unclean, BUT, what comes out of our hearts, through our tongue, and mouth breeds all kinds of evil and malice! Self control, to me, is using the fruit of the Holy Spirit to give life, not death. Blessings, not curses. Encourage, not discourage. Kindness, not meanness. Love, not hate! What we say to others, whether we are aware or not, can have a lasting impact on that person. You all have heard this phrase: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything.” I feel like in today’s world, we seem to “filter” less of what we say than before. We seem to say whatever that comes to our mind without thinking about the consequences of what we will say. That is why we have to constantly ask God to help us in growing self control. All the fruits of the Holy Spirit require God’s intervention. We cannot grow these fruits by ourselves. Self control is a key in helping us overcome temptations. It’s different from having self control from eating 1 more cookie. When we face temptation to do or say something that will bring hurt to another, having self control prevents us from choosing to say and do what the devil wants us to. It is the road less traveled..

1 Corinthians 9:25 addresses, "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable."

We receive and grow all the fruits of the Holy Spirit, with God’s help, for one purpose. To finish the race for eternal life! Our prize is not silver or gold, but everlasting life and a seat at His table when Jesus comes again. What a celebration that will be! 

I pray that each of you will have the self control to treat each other with equality, encouragement and most importantly, LOVE! See you at Papa’s house!

David Kim