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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