Daily Encouragement: Year 1, Day 52
Adapted from Handbook to Leadership
Personal Development: Self-Discipline
Because of Timothy’s natural inclination to timidity, Paul was prompted to encourage his fellow worker to maintain a holy boldness and assurance in his position of spiritual leadership. Paul had commissioned Timothy to oversee many of the churches in the Roman province of Asia, and this task required a spirit characterized by power, love, and self-discipline. Self-discipline is needed to stretch us beyond our own comfort zones and areas of personal inertia. For some, the needed discipline will be more in the realm of the emotions; for others the focus of self-control will be in the realm of the mind or of the will.
Writing to the Galatians, Paul listed the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). While people without Christ can exercise self-control, this quality in its fullest expression of character transformation is a part of the spiritual fruit that only the Holy Spirit can produce in us.
Read Paul’s instruction to Timothy again in this passage, and let it sink in and empower you in the areas in which you most need help. God’s Spirit is the power source behind self-discipline. Timothy evidently found that out, and so can you.