Keep improving
2021-01-30Luke 12:48 NIV
If we want to use our God-given skills to their full advantage in His kingdom, it’s important for us to keep growing and improving them. To do that, we need self-discipline. When we have a natural talent for something and we find it easy, we might forget we need to invest time and effort into improving it. We might also find it boring, especially if it involves some degree of repetition or going back over the basics. That’s why we need to learn to discipline ourselves first.
In Galatians 5:22-23, we can read a list of the fruits if the Spirit – one of which is self-control. If we rely on our own strength, we’ll struggle to stay disciplined. But we have the help of the Holy Spirit. When we allow Him to work within us, He’ll help us to develop our self-control. Here are three reasons why self-control can help us to grow our skills:
1) Improving something often means giving up something else. We may have to give up some of our free time in order to practise and learn, and being disciplined helps us to stay focused and avoid being distracted by other things.
2) We need to take small steps. That can make learning and improving feel like a slow process at times. Self-discipline can help prevent us wanting to give up when we’re not moving forwards as quickly as we’d like.
3) There’s always room for improvement. When we can do something well, it’s tempting to just stop there. Self-discipline helps us refuse to settle for ‘good enough’ and instead keep reaching for the best we can be, so we can be everything God designed us to be.