Thursday, February 17, 2011

Deny Yourself

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

Sin causes us to be self-centered, shifting our hearts from God to self. The essence of salvation is an about-face from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. The Christian must spend a lifetime denying self. Our great temptation will be to affirm ourselves while we follow Jesus. James and John did this when they chose to follow Jesus but asked for the two most prominent positions in Jesus' kingdom (Mark 10:35-37). James and John wanted a discipleship that would not impede their personal desires and aspirations. Like them, we say, "Lord, I want to be pleasing to you, but I want to stay where I am." ~Blackaby

Wow – this really hit home to me in my devotions today!  How many times during the day do I actually deny myself anything?  Yet, in order to be like Christ, and be His true disciple, I must do this daily.  We never get to the point where we’ve arrived and know it all.  I fall so short and yet, He SO loves!!  Guess I need to get started…how about you?

No comments:

Post a Comment