Deny Yourself
January 28, 2008
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” – Matthew 16:24 (AMP)
The call to deny yourself is central to the Christian faith. Although it is something we do not like to talk about, denial of ourselves is a fundamental requirement of following Jesus. Most of us read this verse and immediately consider the obvious things that we are called to turn away from. Most of these things are external and obvious sins of the flesh.
The problem is that in our basic understanding of this directive, we often fall short of what God is actually aiming at. We are so used to external religion that we read this statement and our mind immediately filters through all the fleshly, outward things that we need to contain or even purge from our lives. While this is helpful to be sure, this is just the first stage of what God is wanting to do and if we do not push beyond the outward observance of this commandment we will miss something that is vital if we are to truly know God. Missing this thing can be the difference between living as a nominal Christian and living as one that knows God. Continue Reading Deny Yourself »