"Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."
Luke 9:23-26
We want to be more like Jesus, but the process of being transformed and conformed to become an imitator and follower of the Lord can be difficult to accomplish and frankly a hard pill to swallow for many. Jesus tells us, though, to come after Him, follow Him...to follow Him means we are moving in the same path and direction as Him, with the same destination, eternal communion with Him. This involves denying ourselves. We live in a culture of egocentric self-absorption, even many churches spin a watered-down feel-good message to make their hearers feel warm and fuzzy, and it comes as a shock to realize that we are not the center of our world. It is self denial that is the hammer and nails that crucifies our fleshly and carnal nature on the cross that Jesus told us to pick up daily.
We exist for JESUS-not the other way around - for His pleasure, to bring Him glory, to worship Him, and Him alone.
Denying ourselves means that our lives are not our own, that He is the most important One, and we do not exist to be entertained.
Jesus' love is so all consuming, so wounding, that there is nothing else that satisfies our deepest longings: self gratification , self service, self preservation, are all wiped away. Self denial is that pin hole opened up by the Holy Spirit into our hearts, minds, and spirit that totally blows away the old man, and enables resurrected living.
*Special thanks to Stephen Venable, IHOP-KC, ONETHING 2010 CONFERENCE SESSION 14
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