Wide Open

A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.
Proverbs 25:28 NLT

What do you think of when you read about cities with walls? Do you think of Jericho with walls so thick you could drive a chariot on the top of them? Do you picture castle fortresses? Maybe you think of the Army forts in the Wild West or places like the Alamo Mission. One thing for sure, if you saw it in a movie, you knew when the walls were breached, defeat was imminent.

In The Message, this same verse reads, "A person without self-control is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out."  Does that make more sense? Does it give you a better visual in your mind's eye? How much protection from the elements is a house with no doors or windows? We can have the best HVAC system in the world but how effective will it be if we have no doors or windows? How good is it for keeping out unwanted critters or trespassers?

We are left wide open - defenseless - and delusional if we think otherwise. If we have not nurtured the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23, that's how we are if we do not walk in self-control. Wide open to the onslaught of the enemy, defenseless and delusional.

Prayer:

Father,
Help us to walk by Your Spirit so that we don't gratify the desires of our flesh. "Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." Give us clean hands and pure hearts so that we may inherit Your Kingdom. We want to walk fully in "the fruit of the Holy Spirit - love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control for against such things there is no law." In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen