Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Deny Self

Mark 8:34 34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

I find it easy to get confused. In the journey of serving the Lord I sometimes get off track by focusing on my needs, my will, my agenda, basically, on what I want. If others don't do things my way and on my time schedule I get frustrated. That's usually when I get so frustrated I want to say "I'm done!" or to use a C.S. Lewis line, "Hang it all!" I have to realize when my focus is not on Him and what He wants then I am confused. Actually, I am more than confused; I am willfully disobedient.

Perhaps you are like me. Jesus has a simple answer for our confusion: deny self or die to self (drop what we want), take up our cross (His will for us) and follow Him (live as He lived). By the way, dropping what we want does not mean that we don't ever get what we want; He gives us dreams for a reason. It just means we hold more tightly to Him than we do the dream.

Blessed day; stand in Christ alone.

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