To Truly Live, We must Deny Ourselves

Mark 8:34-37: " Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"

Life is full of choices.  Every day, we make dozens of them.  Jesus says to choose the life which brings the greatest fulfillment and good. Israel was given this same choice in Deuteronomy 30:19: "...Choose life so that you may live..."  Jesus explains the implications of this choice. He tells us to give up our selfish tendencies - what we want - and choose to follow him instead.  That means we do things His way.  It means we deny ourselves instant gratification, the quest for pleasure, and creature comforts.  It means we relinquish control of our lives to Christ.  Nowhere does the Scripture tell us to “die to yourself,” though we equate “deny yourself” with that. God made us who we are in the miraculous way life comes into being.  We are, as we quote, "fearfully and wonderfully made.”  We are created to be our unique personality, yet we give up the authority to our ways, or our understanding of things, in Christ.  That does not kill us or cause us to die to ourselves; it gives us a more important choice to “deny ourselves.”  We remain who we are, giving us the right to do or have what we want. We have the right to something contrary to righteousness, but we say, “No!”  That choice makes us closer to the being God wants us to be and conforms us more to the likeness of Christ, but with our personality, talents, gifts, and spiritual tools, God has given to each of us specifically at birth and once we are "born again."  And it means we no longer live for our agendas and achievements but for his.  That does not cause us to die; it makes us choose to deny.  That is truly living.  We become more of the person God uses to be salt and light to those in our sphere of influence.

Jesus' teaching goes against what the world around us teaches us.  We are trained to look out for ourselves.  Every self-help book promotes "self-love and self-aggrandizing."  Many churches teach us that God wants to make us happy, so we pray for our will to be done for more money, the best houses, the newest cars, and the finest toys.  This is not what Jesus taught and is not how we should live.  He taught that those things were lesser ambitions, and we should strive for His greater ambitions for much greater contentment.  We are simply giving up the lesser for the greater.  And in this lies the paradox; we experience joy and contentment.  We find that we were created to live, not die. In this living, we find that as we deny ourselves, the Father, Son, and Spirit make their home with us.    With you, he created you beautifully and wonderfully to become His Son. Paul’s words come to mind, “To live is Christ; to die gain.”  As you live, you are not becoming a robot.  To truly live in Christ is to become the Christ follower we are meant to be. Sadly, many reject the invitation.  Some accept it and remain immature.  A few choose to trust the Lord’s invitation to “deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me," and with joy, they learn what it means to truly live.