Saturday, October 1, 2011

Self Denial

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)

To “deny” something means to contradict, disavow, reject, disown, or abstain. So to deny myself I must act in ways that contradict my natural desires. I must disavow myself, lay down my own agendas, disown my own ambitions, and abstain or not vote “my way” anymore. This is a tall order for most of us who would be disciples. It goes against our natural impulses. It is an upside down way to our way of seeing ourself. In my haste and zeal of winning people to Christ, I find that I sometimes have failed in fostering an understanding of what this passage really means. I have endeavored to teach people to love God and live for God without teaching them how to die for Him. It is painful to watch a disciple walk away from Christ when life gets a little too tough to endure. This is where the discipline of self-denial becomes the hardest to practice. And it’s also a time when we learn that DENYING SELF MEANS DYING TO SELF.

I. DENYING SELF IS A TRADE OFF OF DESIRES. Consider a child wanting to follow a parent. They may have to put their shoes on or be instructed not to take their favorite dolly. The child has some preparation to make and something they cannot take. So it is with a desire to follow Jesus…there is preparation involved…a commitment to follow. And there is also something not to take – self. If we desire to follow…we will deny our self-centered desires. Is our desire to follow Jesus stronger than our desire to “go our own way?”, “to be our own boss”, or “to have it your way”? I once saw a hat that said, “Don't follow me…I’m lost!” The reason we desire to come after Jesus is He is not lost…but without Him we realize that we are. He not only knows the way…He is the way. Trading our desires is like the plight of the addict who will not recover until he desires a different way of living. Until the desire to love sobriety is greater than the desire for drunkenness, he will not change. We are addicted to serve self rather than God. We are addicted to sin. Do we desire His way more than our way? Like an addict, we must love the alternative more than we want to remain as we are to be able to recover.
II. DENYING SELF IS ACCEPTING GOD’S DESIRES IN PLACE OF OUR OWN. What are God’s desires? What does He want? “Not my will, but Your will,” was Jesus’ prayer. Can it be ours? God’s desires are always good, even when it looks bad. What does God desire? According to an Old Testament prophet, this is a valid question. God’s desire is that we love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly before him. Self does not want to act justly. Self does not love mercy or show kindness unless self is to be gratified. Self is always on parade with a “look at me” attitude, void of humility. So what does it mean to deny self? To act as Jesus acts. If we would come after Jesus, we will deny self. There is no one on parade when we follow Jesus but Jesus and those who follow Him.

1 comment:

Riley said...

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