Day #330 - Deny your Self

The Presence - A Devotional for living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

Have you ever had the realization that your problems would go away if you weren’t so selfish?

That can be a tough pill to swallow. I think we have to examine that our selfishness can certainly be a root cause to the problems we face. I think this applies to marriage, friendships, our careers and beyond. I know it can be so difficult to examine our own motives at times. Our desire to blame others for our life choices and problems goes all the way back to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. But there is true freedom when we let go of our selfishness.

Jesus said to His disciples that if we are disciples, true followers, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. Truly following Jesus is a way of death, death to self. Christ’s message is so counter to the world that is all about self expression and self affirmation. We are told to express ourselves and be true to our selves. Jesus says we are to deny ourselves.

Jesus gives us in incentive for following Him, denying ourselves and taking up our crosses to follow Him. That incentive is that when we loves our lives we will save it. The way of God’s kingdom seems so upside down (but we are actually the ones who are upside down). If we try and save our lives we will lose it.

The path to “the Presence” is denial of self, death and cross-like suffering. We don’t have to die for our sins on the cross, Jesus completed that. But His way was the way of suffering and self-denial, so to be like our Lord as His follower, we must do the same.

The call to follow Jesus is always first the call to be with Him, the call to “the Presence” kind of life. I remember hearing Graham Cooke talk about how we would write to a minister friend of his about all the ways people were hurting him, mistreating him and betraying him in ministry. His mentor would simply respond to his letters with the initials “D.Q.” It was short for “Die Quietly.” He would go on to say, “Die Quietly, no one wants to hear you scream.”

We can feel like hardship, suffering and the cross we bear are not fair or some kind of punishment. But its actually a privilege to be called on this path because it is the way of our Lord. We are invited to walk like Him and to walk with Him. He has not abandoned us in our suffering. The things that come to kill the self rule in us are actually helping us to lose our life so that we may find it.

Lord Jesus, thank You for bearing my sin and shame on the cross. Thank You for enduring suffering and being an example to me of self-denial. I lay down my life. I choose to follow You no matter what may come my way. I want to be with You and to be like You. In Your holy name, amen.