Living a life under control

View Slides Holidays are always a tough time for moderation, but invariably once they’re finished, we look back and think about how we have to get our eating or drinking back under control. Because we all understand at some level that moderation is important for a healthy life. But that doesn’t come naturally to us – we have to work on moderation.

The world – and even some Christians – see this call to living a life under control as a call to living a boring, unexciting life. But if we’re truly living a life in Christ, we’re living a life that is driven, with a daily purpose that fills us with a sense of urgency, not complacency. 

A Christian life can’t be lived in a casual way. We are called to be diligent – to treat our spiritual lives as if they are the most important thing on any given day. That requires me to struggle, to battle, and sometimes to undergo hardship in order to conform myself to the image of Jesus Christ.

We talk today about four keys to living a life under control for Jesus:

• Planning for success in my temptations
• Seeing my body as a tool to be mastered
• Running with intent, not aimlessly
• Building my faith in a greater outcome