What Does It Take? Part 1

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

DENY YOURSELF

So from this passage it is clear that Jesus was given us direct instructions for godly living. He said that in order to come after him we must do 3 things. The first thing is to deny yourself.

Well, to be honest it is here that the battle of the flesh and the mind have front row seats. To deny means both to withhold something as well as to refuse to recognize something. In following Christ, we have choices to make that would mean keeping things from myself that would not be glorifying to God and also actually refusing to even acknowledge my desires as most important.

By nature we are sinful. There is a day by day (in my case minute by minute) battle of what should I do? how do I handle this situation? would God care if I did this? What if I really want to do this even though I know it's not the wisest decision? Are the consequences worth it?

The truth is that there is an inner struggle to gratify the things of the flesh while at the same time desiring to please God. I don't think I could possibly say it as well as the Message tells it in Romans 7:15-20, 25

"What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it, I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time...The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different."

Now if that doesn't describe us, well at least me anyways...I'm not sure what will. Can I be real for a minute? Recently I literally crashed into this struggle in a way that I never had before. Here I thought this Christian walk was supposed to get easier Sheesh! no such luck! I was overwhelmed by the desire to do something that would have felt amazing at the moment but would have had repercussions that I hardly wanted to think about.

My thoughts on this whole business of denying oneself,is this- I believe that God uses situations to remind us that just when we think we have it together, we realize how desperately in need of a Savior we really are. I'm not sure I will ever stop learning that lesson now.