Be Still And Know

Proverbs 25:28 'A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.' It’s always tragic to see someone who is drunk. They stagger along the road with no clear sense of direction, their speech is slurred and you sense that they might fall over and hurt themselves at any moment. But there are many other less obvious examples of a loss of self-control. Some people lack self-control in their spending or eating and the results can be disastrous. The writer of Proverbs compares the person without self- control with a city with broken-down walls; that is to say a city that is open to attack at any moment. It is completely vulnerable and the citizens are right to live in fear. Who would want to live in a city like that for a single day? The New Testament has much to say about self-control, and identifies it as one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:2-23). These fruits – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self- control – naturally grow when the Holy