While I was talking to one of my studnets one day she disrespected me. I was a Christian but her disrespect was so deep that I started to think like my old self. I wanted to cuss her out. But I didn't.
When I got a hold of myself I whispered to God, did you see what almost happened? He responded, "Yes, I saw you...I heard your thoughts. Remember it's all about self control. Don't go back in the past and be that girl".
Then I heard, "What are you going to do about it?" And immediately I thought, I clearly need to consider how I'm going to respond in certain situations.
That is when I heard the Lord say, "Yes, self control is about practice. If you know you're not able to deal with something, begin to practice the thing that's going to help you overcome it. The fact is, you can't defeat a thing if you don't practice what's necessary to defeat it". Soon, examples flooded my mind of times when I would get upset about something someone said or did. Yet, had I practiced (beforehand) how I would deal with these situations when they arose, I would have overcome them.
The bottom line is, our transformation is a process and in that process we have to practice, practice and practice some more how we'll counteract the bad around us and counteract our own weaknesses before they become a problem.
Of course, in our practicing we must recognize that we will fail sometimes. But we must also be very aware that failing should never result in us falling away from God. Instead we need to draw closer to Him because He loves us so much that no matter how many times we fail, He's willing to work with us again and again and again, in order to see us come to perfection. In other words, there's now no condemnation but a Father who wants to see us prosper.
It's so amazing that God would know that we're going to fail and instead of thinking of ways to punish us, He waves a white flag which says "there's no condemnation here" (Romans 8:1).
