Managing Your Peace

Your City Walls Session 2 Self-Control Self-control is not a popular word in America's current culture, nor is it frequently taught as a virtue anymore. And yet what if it is the key to living a peace-filled life that eludes so many? What if so many of our culture's anxiety problems really stem from a lack of the practice of self-control? What if it wasn't a problem with all the chaos of the world, but with the regulation of what we let come inside to our internal lives? We so often look for quick fixes to our problems. I remember going to a counselor for one of our older children. As we were talking with the counselor about our upcoming plane trip to Mexico, she observed my action-oriented four-year-old son struggling to sit through his sibling's long session. I did not ask for advice, but she suggested I give him some medicine to make him drowsy on a plane ride so he'd sleep through the trip. That surprised me. As I perceived it, this trip would be an ideal opportunity for him to develop his skill of self-control. What happens if we always avoid the opportunities to learn and practice the fruit of the Spirit? And what if that one fruit of self-control--a discipline we can grow if we tend to it--is a hedge of protection around all the other fruit of the Spirit in our life? 1. What short-cuts have you taken or have seen others take instead of practicing self-control? _ 2. What do you do to practice self-control in your life where it goes against the grain of popular culture? (ex. Not listening to certain music, avoiding parties, etc.) The Walls of Jerusalem Find Proverbs 25:28 in your Bible and write down the verse. We don't usually have walls around our cities now, especially in America, but there are cities around the world that still do, including present-day Jerusalem. In Biblical times, walls were security for the town from invading countries and people groups. Walls were meant to keep intruders out and to keep people inside protected and at peace. 3. Take time to think of (brainstorm!) any other functions a wall may have served for a city. To see just how important a city's walls were, let's take a look at 2 Kings 25. At this point in history, around 587 BC, Jerusalem's walls were broken through by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. This happened before the time of Nehemiah whom we read about in Session 1. (Nehemiah was rebuilding the city many years after the devastation that Babylon had left behind.) Both 2 Kings and Jeremiah (chapter 52) give a detailed account of what followed the Babylonian invasion. Read 2 Kings 25:1-21. 4. Let's look at the consequences to the breach of Jerusalem's walls. A. What happened to the King of Judah? B. What happened to the King's sons? C. What happened to the temple of God? D. What was done to the King's palace and the homes in Jerusalem? E. What did the Babylonians do to the walls of Jerusalem? F. What did they do to the important people of the town? G. What was done with the gold, silver and bronze that make up the Holy things in God's temple? H. What were the poor people of the land made to do? (If you need a little help finding the answers, here are the verses where you can find the answers for each question: A. v7 B. v7 C. v9 D. v9 E. v10 F. v18-21 G.v13-17 H. v12) In question 3, we brainstormed the possible purposes of a city's walls. Let's see how many of these answers you wrote down or if you had any others not listed here (found in the left column of the chart below). Circle the answers that you have written down already! Underline those you didn't have on your list. In contrast, to a city with its walls intact, the right-hand column of the chart below shows us some of the results for a city that did not have the protection of walls in place. City walls were meant to: -Protect people inside -Keep harmful things or intruders out -Keep good things inside -Protect treasure -Protect the king/ ruler -Regulate what came in and out of the city If the walls were down: -There would be no feeling of peace -There was no regulation of what came in or out -The ruler and treasure were exposed -Harmful things could easily enter -The city would be vulnerable & weak Let's look again at Proverbs 25:28 “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control." (NIV) Now we can better appreciate and apply the wisdom from this proverb written by King Solomon. He penned this verse about 400 years before Jerusalem's walls were torn down by the Babylonian army. Solomon is giving us a key to peace and health in Proverbs 25:28. Are you ready to take it? Just like the effort it takes to unearth a treasure, we have to do some work to mine all the treasure hidden in this proverb. That is what we will be doing together throughout this Bible study. 5. How is your self-control? 6. Another way to look at this question of how is your self-control is to ask how is your internal peace? Just like the city walls kept peace inside the city, self-control keeps the peace safe inside your life from what is happening outside of you. How is your peace? If you feel like your life right now resembles Jerusalem after its walls were broken down, do not be discouraged. Finding that there is a problem is the first step. The process of building healthy walls and managing your city is on-going...