Luke 9:23 (Amplified)
And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].
We often hear it in church: that we must die to ourselves so that we may live. But what does it really mean? Jesus exemplified it very well. On the earth, He died so that others may have the gift of salvation. Not only must He suffer death, He must go through a whole host of other things as well.
He died to His own desires, and came down to earth. He died to His own comfort, and ministered to the people despite being tired. He died to his own ambition, suffering humiliation in front of many. He died to physical pain, willingly letting the nail go through his palm. He died to hatred, washing Judas' feet and forgiving His captors. He died to pride, becoming a servant of all.
Likewise, we must die, so that we might live the life God intended for us. This is a struggle. We must love even when we don't feel like loving. We must press on even when we feel like giving up. When we have our own ambitions and agenda, when all we seek is to fulfil our lusts, we become proud and selfish.
Worse, when all we see are our own needs, we fail to look at the bigger picture. We fail to see the needs of others. We fail to look at God's plan for us, which is even grander than our own selfish dreams. For he says: "my thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and my ways higher than your ways."
When we haven't die to ourselves, our vision becomes blurred. We fail to see past ourselves, and we worship the great big altar of 'me' in our hearts. We need to get ourselves out of the way. Get it out!
Even when we want to meet our own needs, we do it so that we can become more effective at meeting other's needs.
I'm so dying to live right now.
And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].
We often hear it in church: that we must die to ourselves so that we may live. But what does it really mean? Jesus exemplified it very well. On the earth, He died so that others may have the gift of salvation. Not only must He suffer death, He must go through a whole host of other things as well.
He died to His own desires, and came down to earth. He died to His own comfort, and ministered to the people despite being tired. He died to his own ambition, suffering humiliation in front of many. He died to physical pain, willingly letting the nail go through his palm. He died to hatred, washing Judas' feet and forgiving His captors. He died to pride, becoming a servant of all.
Likewise, we must die, so that we might live the life God intended for us. This is a struggle. We must love even when we don't feel like loving. We must press on even when we feel like giving up. When we have our own ambitions and agenda, when all we seek is to fulfil our lusts, we become proud and selfish.
Worse, when all we see are our own needs, we fail to look at the bigger picture. We fail to see the needs of others. We fail to look at God's plan for us, which is even grander than our own selfish dreams. For he says: "my thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and my ways higher than your ways."
When we haven't die to ourselves, our vision becomes blurred. We fail to see past ourselves, and we worship the great big altar of 'me' in our hearts. We need to get ourselves out of the way. Get it out!
Even when we want to meet our own needs, we do it so that we can become more effective at meeting other's needs.
I'm so dying to live right now.
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