{"id":3328,"date":"2023-11-19T03:24:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T03:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=3328"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:32:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:32:45","slug":"self-discipline-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=3328","title":{"rendered":"SELF-DISCIPLINE ADVANTAGE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Successful business people, Olympic athletes, and professional musicians have this in common: they are known for their extraordinary self-discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are Christians? Do we eat healthier, exercise more, and foster positive morning routines like prayer and Bible study?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe I am missing something, but I don&#8217;t see that trend among the general church population to any noticeable degree.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we aren&#8217;t known for self-discipline, what are we known for?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are believers known for their love?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For being joyful?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are we full of peace?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Known to be patient and kind?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do we have the reputation of being good, faithful, and gentle?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It seems to me that all those characteristics would be associated with believers to a much greater extent than &#8220;self-disciplined&#8221; would be.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But you may have already recognized that list of good characteristics.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These are the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Self-control <i>is also<\/i> on that list, though. So why don&#8217;t we see more of it?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After all, we have a pronounced <i>advantage <\/i>over any secular business people, athletes, and musicians &#8211; We have available to us a self-control fostered by God&#8217;s Holy Spirit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Successful business people, Olympic athletes, and professional musicians have this in common: they are known for their extraordinary self-discipline. Are Christians? Do we eat healthier, exercise more, and foster positive morning routines like prayer and Bible study? Maybe I am missing something, but I don&#8217;t see that trend among the general church population to any [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3329,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions\/3329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}