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 DENY YOURSELF


Luke 9:23
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after me. Let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

In the days of Jesus’ earthy mission, if you saw someone carrying a cross surrounded by Roman soldiers, you knew that person was not coming back. Death was assured. Jesus knew He was to be crucified and rise again. He was telling His followers, that means us, too, that we are to be willing to have earthly life taken from us for His and the Gospel’s sake.

The other aspect of His Words, “Let him deny himself…” is just as profound and risky. Denying myself, at its heart, means that I must die daily to the illusion that I can fix myself. My faith depends on Jesus Christ from start to finish. Apart from Him, there is no hope for humanity to become all God created us to know. Salvation is of the Lord alone.

Human beings have been trying to reverse the consequences of Adam’s fall ever sin he fell from grace in Eden. To follow Jesus, though, you must embrace the reality that you can never save, restore, or reverse your condition of being spiritually dead by any personal means whatsoever. Following Jesus entails dying to one’s old way of living and thinking and to begin to live a new life and to think with a Holy Spirit renewed mind. People will say, “Well that just the way I was born.” True. But that is why Jesus Christ made it clear that you must be born again. You must let the old way be crucified, die, and be buried never to be returned to as a way of living. That New Birth is something God does in the Holy Spirit’s power. God gives us resurrection Life. We are born into a new Kingdom that does not have us “assuming the throne” of our lives.

Today, take up the cross, the truth that you can never change yourself. You can never become your best self apart from letting the old, ingrained ways of thinking and doing die, denying any alternative to truly being made whole but Jesus Christ alone. Following Jesus means that you will do as He does and say what He says. Following Him means letting Him live Life both in you and through you.

Today, agree with God that you will never be your own salvation. Let that “reasonable” lie be crucified. Let it die, never to be relied upon again. By the Holy Spirit, put to death the “deeds of the flesh” that insidious, broken system that can never restore your soul. Let Jesus Christ rule in all you are. Follow Him; He will give you the power to do just that.



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