Deny Self to Follow Jesus

Matthew 16:24 - Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

     What does it mean to deny self? It means that we put aside ALL our personal goals, dreams, and desires for the sole purpose of following Christ. It is not an easy thing to deny self, but for victory in life and over sin it is a requirement. This goes against many of the "self help" books, but we are to focus on Christ and forget self or building ourselves up. All sin is grounded in pride and selfishness, and the moment we begin trying "build" ourselves we fall into the trap of pride building. It is NOT me or if I believe in myself, it is Christ and if I place my FAITH in HIM. The Bible says we are to decrease and He is to increase.

     The cross is no place of glory, it is instead a place of shame. Taking up our cross is not a task that is easy to do, but is a necessity for abundant life. I know we can say, "It doesn't make sense to take up a cross in order to have victory and the abundant life." However don't forget that God's thoughts and ways rarely, if ever, really makes sense to us. I have heard it said that "Any god that can be understood completely is not a god worth following." We must come to the place where all fleshly desires are stripped from us, it is only at that point God will clothe us with His righteousness. We must deny ourselves and take up the cross.

     The cross is a place for crucifixion and death. What cross must we bear? For me right now it is the cross of weight loss. I must come to the cross of Jesus, crucify the fleshly desire for food a.k.a. gluttony, then I must pick up the cross of self denial; denying the desire to eat a little bit more, and the desire to sleep instead of exercise. This cross must be carried with determination.

     If you find yourselves in the same battle as I am, we must come to these truths before we can truly effectively lose weight.  Losing weight is not only about being lighter, but being a better light. Let's not delay anymore, but instead let's meet at the cross.