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Over the past year, we’ve been learning what it means to cultivate lives that bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and finally, self-control.

Self-control is about mastery over our own desires. It’s the strength to say “yes” when everything in us wants to say “no” and to say “no” when our impulses push us toward “yes.” In Romans 7, Paul describes the tension between his intentions and his actions—he wants to do what is right but often ends up doing what he hates. That struggle is one we all know. The irony is that we cannot truly develop self-control by relying on ourselves. Only God can put to death those desires that have the potential to enslave us and help us cultivate lives in which we grow in the fruit of the Spirit.