Be Self-controlled

Psalm 37:8 (HCSB)

Refrain from anger and give up your rage; do not be agitated—it can only bring harm.

Proverbs 15:18

A hot-tempered man stirs up conflict, but a man slow to anger calms strife.

Proverbs 25:28

Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.

Thomas a Kempis

No conflict is so severe as his who labors to subdue himself.

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.

Arthur P. Stanley

More dear in the sight of God and His angels than any other conquest is the conquest of self.

C.H. Spurgeon

He is truly great in power who hath power over himself.

Frederick William Robertson, Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, “Christian Progress by Oblivion of the Past” on Philippians 3:13-14

https://books.google.com/books?id=bAQqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA78&lpg

Every temptation to evil temper which can assail us today will be an opportunity to decide the question whether we shall gain the calmness and the rest of Christ, or whether we shall be tossed by the restlessness and agitation of the world. Nay, the very vicissitudes of the seasons, day and night, heat and cold, affecting us variably, and producing exhilaration or depression, are so contrived as to conduce towards the being which we become, and decide whether we shall be master of ourselves, or whether we shall be swept at the mercy of accident and circumstance, miserably susceptible of merely outward influences.

A.B. Simpson on Proverbs 16:32 "He that ruleth his spirit [is better] than he that taketh a city."

Temperance is true self-government. It involves the grace of self-denial and the spirit of a sound mind. It is that poise of spirit that holds us quiet, self-possessed, composed, deliberate and subject to the voice of God and the conviction of duty in every step we take. Many persons do not have that poise and serenity. They are drifting at the impulse of their own impressions and moods, the influence of others or the circumstances around them.

No desire should ever control us. No purpose, however right, should have such mastery over us that we are not perfectly free. Our pure affection may be an inordinate affection. Our work itself may be a selfish passion. That thing that we began to do because it was God's will we may cling to and persist in, ultimately, because it is our own will.

Lord, give us a spirit ever controlled by Thy Spirit and will and the eye that looks to Thee every moment. So shall Thy service be our perfect freedom, and our subjection divinest liberty.

Watchman Nee on 2 Timothy 1:7

We must have a spirit of power towards the enemy, a spirit of love towards men, and a spirit of self-control towards ourselves.

WARNING

A.W. Tozer The Warfare of the Spirit

A man or woman in Christ who has achieved true self-control may expect to be very much out of step with the world. Human beings given to excess will not take kindly to the Spirit-filled, temperate soul living among them.