Has your personality been redeemed?
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
This devotional was written by Dr. Robert A. Cook. You can subscribe to his free email articles at Walk With The King Today and listen to his Spirit-filled 15-minute messages. Used with written permission.
Galatians 5:23 The fruit of the Spirit is… temperance.
Read Galatians 5:19-23.
Suffer a little word study here, will you? The Greek word translated temperance is a compound word meaning ‘inner strength.’ First, we have a little prefix, en, followed by krateia, a word related to kratos, meaning ‘force, power, or dominion.’ What Paul is saying is that when the Holy Spirit is in control of your life, there will be force to drive you, power to keep you in line, and dominion to make your life an experience of victory, not defeat.
The Holy Spirit provides the power to keep you going in God’s will. The Spirit-filled Christian need not experience burnout! ‘if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,’ Paul wrote, ‘He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you’ (Rom. 8:11). Mortal means ‘still alive, but capable of dying.’ Quicken means ‘give life to.’ When the Holy Spirit provides the power there’s no need to worry about collapsing! When He gives that inner strength of which our text speaks, life is filled with dominion instead of drudgery. To be blessedly in control of one’s life because God is running things — that is joy indeed! And it all begins when you trust God to supply the lacking dimensions of your redeemed personality.
Small thought here. ‘Inner strength’ — what the Bible calls temperance — is achieved by faith. Confess your need, ask for His supply, and receive it by faith. Our Heavenly Father says, ‘Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness’ (Isa. 41:10).
