Baptist City Blog

Conquering Yourself

Joshua 18:2

"And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance."

One of the hardest things you will accomplish in your life is that of conquering yourself and bringing your flesh under control. There are too many people in the Christian life who have never learned to conquer themselves, and then they find themselves being up and down in their Christian life. When Joshua addressed the children of Israel about conquering the land of Canaan, he told them several things they must do to conquer that land. The same things that Israel had to do to conquer Canaan applies to you when trying to conquer yourself.

First, learn to study yourself. Joshua 18:4 says, "Give out from among you three men for each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me." Joshua was telling these men to do a survey of the land and study how they could conquer its inhabitants. Likewise, you will never conquer yourself if you don't learn yourself. You must learn your habits and what causes you to do what you do. One of the greatest reasons why people don't conquer themselves is because they have never studied what makes them do the good and bad that they do. The greatest subject you could study other than God is yourself. If you plan to conquer yourself, then you must learn the habits and trends of your life.

Second, categorize your life. In verse 8, Joshua divided the land by lots. Once you have studied yourself, then you need to categorize each aspect of your life. For instance, some of the categories of my life are my family, my church, my ministry, etc. I believe you get the picture. To conquer one's self, one must have his life categorized so he can make sure each area will be properly maintained.

Third, schedule your life. In verse 9, they divided the land into seven parts that they were to conquer. What they were doing was scheduling how they would conquer the land. The reason you need to categorize your life is so that you can schedule your life. You must schedule yourself to work on each category of your life. For instance, part of my weekly schedule consists of spending time with my family, doing work for my church, spending time walking with God on a daily basis and doing work for my ministry. If you don't learn to schedule your categories into your life, then those categories will suffer.

Fourth, grow your weak areas. In Joshua 19:47, Joshua told the children of Dan that they needed to conquer more land if their inheritance was too small for them. When studying yourself, you will learn what your weak areas are in your life. When you find those weak areas, work on strengthening them so they don't continue to hinder you from becoming what God wants you to become.

Last, give yourself room for mistakes. In Joshua chapter 20, God told Joshua to set up cities of refuge for those who accidentally killed someone. In other words, you will never conquer yourself if you don't learn to give yourself room for mistakes. You will make mistakes in life, but don't let those mistakes beat you down to the point of discouragement. Get back up and try doing better the next time. Learn to forgive yourself when you make mistakes.

One of the greatest victories you will accomplish in your life is when you conquer yourself. Let these five areas help you conquer yourself so that you can better serve the LORD.