Friends, dumping sites are full of great lives destroyed by lack of self-discipline, self-mastery and self-control. In the dumping sites there are great preachers who have shaken the world but they failed to shake their self-control and discipline.
There are presidents and prime ministers who could have shaped the destiny of the world, but fell into disgrace because of lack of self-mastery. Many of us are trying to conquer the skies, seas and the earth yet we have dismally failed to conquer ourselves.
You are your own devil, no one can bring you down but yourself. To find your worst enemy, look no further than yourself. Our newspapers can’t sell without gory pictures and stories of people who lost their heads and wiped out entire families, husbands and wives just because they couldn’t deal, face and conquer themselves.
Great churches that promised to turn communities have come crashing down even before celebrating a fifth year anniversary because of the bishop, the pastor or leader who failed to control himself and took the whole church down to scandal valley.
Where is the problem?
We have placed too much emphasis on performance instead of morality, we have glorified charisma and shamefully neglected character. A combination of character, charisma, commitment, courage and consistency equals credibility.
Good leadership starts with self-leadership, before leading others we must first lead ourselves. Self-leadership is the process of influencing oneself to pursue self-awareness, self-renewal, self-development, self-discipline, and self-motivation needed to perform effectively. I bet my bottom dollar, if one fails to conquer oneself, one can’t conquer anything.
What to do in order to master and conquer yourself:
Establish your identity, know who you are.
John 8:57-58. People won’t give you chance to be yourself, the Jews fought Jesus when He said He was king of the Jews. The moment you become yourself, you intimidate everyone around you.
Spend time with God renewing yourself.
Read the Word and pray. Being is more important than doing. When your “being is strong, your doing is effective”.
Learn through the mistakes of others.
Life itself is the greatest teacher. It is cheaper to learn from mistakes of others than your own. Spend time in the panel-beating room than in the painting room. Know your weaknesses and deal with them before they deal with you. Instead of fighting mere man I rather fight myself.
