Then Jesus said to
His disciples, “If anyone desires to 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.”
Self-centered
people try to keep their lives unruffled and undisturbed, safe and secure. Our
temptation is to give our time and effort to the goals of this world. Then,
when we are successful in the world’s eyes, we seek to bring God into our world
by honoring Him with our success. We may say, “Now that I have succeeded in
business [or sports, or politics, or with my family, or even Christian
ministry], I want to give God the glory for it!” God is not interested in
receiving secondhand glory from our activity. God receives glory from His
activity through our lives.
The
world will entice you to adopt its goals and to invest in temporal things.
Resist the temptation to pursue your own goals, asking God to bless them.
Rather, deny yourself and join the activity of God as He reveals it to you.
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