I Thessalonians 4:4
“each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,”
There’s much that goes into this verse, “how to control his own body in holiness and honor”. I believe this is saying that we know how we should behave. The difficulty comes in doing it.
The realm of addictive behavior comes to mind. It could be drugs and alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, eating, cleaning, unbalanced relationships, gossip, revenge, and so on. These have put some in depression and damages their relationships.
Many suffering from these behaviors can’t control themselves. However, I’m not only addressing the extreme cases. Most of us struggle with behavior that we don’t want. Paul refers to the common struggle with sin. In Romans 7:19, he says, “For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish”. If that isn’t your experience, then ask The Lord about it. We have plenty of blindspots that we aren’t aware of.
How can we control ourselves? We need to understand the magnetism of our behavior. Once we’re in a cycle, it’s difficult to stop. The first step is to avoid it once we sense it. Joseph immediately left the scene when his bosses wife was inappropriate (Genesis 39).
Sometimes we are caught in a cycle. Pastor Rick (Warren) says to change the channel. If it’s a thought, stop it. That might not be so easy. They can be obsessive. Do something different, call a friend, engage is a chore that grabs our attention. Those in the weight loss industry speak of food temptations lasting 14 seconds. Often times getting our minds off it fixes it. It depends how deep we are in the cycle.
Being logical also breaks the cycle. Most of us have heard that if we’ve lost our temper, we should count to ten. There’s something to that. The lure that we struggle with is very emotional. To remain logical can break that. Do a sudoku puzzle, recite times tables in our minds. Doing this for a minute or so often helps.
Some may be concerned that these strategies don’t seem spiritual. It’s using wisdom. Joseph didn’t stop and pray. He ran. Staying with The Lord in prayer is good and important. We should be praying about our struggles.
Lord, help us to remain holy. Help us to avoid bad thoughts and behavior.