I deny me. Huh?
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25
Deny myself. Hmmmm. Doesn’t that go absolutely against the very fabric of the paradigm of our current culture? We are taught by the media, the schools, our families and friends, even some of our churches that we need to provide for ourselves! It is a “me” generation! The thought of denying ourselves is VERY foreign to us! If we want a particular food – we go get it! If we want to see a movie – off we go! When we look for work, we try to pick and choose what we’ll do based upon our preferences. We spend our money on our current living expenses first, then save up for our retirement! If there is money left over (which there almost NEVER is) then we use some of THAT for our tithes and offerings!
Jesus however did not give us an option. He said “… he MUST deny himself …” (emphasis mine)! It is expected of us! We are not to question it! Our needs must NOT be first! We are NOT working for our upkeep! We are NOT to provide for ourselves! We are to follow Jesus! We are to work for HIM! We are to put HIM first!
I know that many of you, if not all, will violently disagree with me and provide a plethera of disagreements on this. It is possible, also, that I am overstating this for effect. This is because we never seriously considering making this a practical part of our lives! We are all about ourselves, not about Jesus! We need to consider – for a change – denying ourselves for Him!
