Episode 426: I’m Talkin…Self-Control

I’m Talkin, episode 426 for June 14, 2026.

This is Joel from the I’m Talkin microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week we’re talking self-control.

So does it count if the word is hyphenated that it’s just one word?

I did self-discipline some time back.

I didn’t listen to see what I said, but self-control feels like a little bit of a lost art.

It feels like because we live in what may be a self-centered world that we don’t feel like we need to limit ourselves to what we can, not can do, but should do or want to do.

Kind of the thought that we are our own God and we can do whatever we want.

And therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

Today’s word comes from 1 Peter 1, verse 13 that says, So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control.

Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Christ Jesus is revealed to the world.

The verse starts out with a bit of a dichotomy, is that the right word?

Where it says, prepare your minds for action.

So now you’re like, okay, I’m good.

I’m ready to move.

And then it says, and exercise self-control.

So what does that mean?

I think that goes right back to what I was talking about before.

We want to be people of action as Christians.

We want to present God’s word and what he has done for people to them in a proper way.

We want to have things that we can do.

But at the same time, we want to exercise self-control.

We want the Holy Spirit to lead.

We don’t want to be out in front of what God would have us do.

We want to exercise self-control in that we need to not be offensive in our approach.

And then it says, how do you do that?

And it’s not necessarily a how, but a why.

And it says, because our entire hope is on the gracious salvation that we get because of who Jesus Christ is.

The world will soon know it.

Well, I don’t know how soon, but I feel like it could be soon.

And they will recognize the truth of what we have presented as Christians if we do it well, if we prepare ourselves for action, but do it with self-control guided by the Holy Spirit.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.