Living Stones – Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Self-denial
Luke 9:23
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
Shortly after the feeding of the five thousand and the clamoring crowds, and just before the transfiguration, Jesus poses a question to the disciples that got to the heart of His identity. “Who am I?” “Who do the crowds say that I am?” “And who do you say I am?”
Having heard Peter’s confession of His identity, Jesus predicts His death on the cross, and then makes a demand of those who will follow Him. Practice self-denial.
Often, when we hear self-denial or think of self-denial, we conjure up images of someone living in the mountains or the desert, eating herbs and insects and with long unkempt hair and a staff. Or of monks in a monastery.
Many of us are afraid of those images and cannot think of how we could live without chocolate, Chinese food, TV, smartphones, WiFi or Facebook, etc.
By definition, self-denial is: a restraint or limitation of one’s own desires or interests; a sacrifice of one’s own desires or interests; or the willingness to forgo personal pleasures or undergo personal trials in the pursuit of the increased good of another.
We live in a world that is in rebellion against God. Rebellion against God is exemplified by our efforts to place ourselves at the center of the world. To focus selfishly on our own needs, wants and gratification.
The Devil sought to take for himself the worship that belongs to God, and for that fell like lightening from heaven. His objective for the world ever since is to turn generation after generation of men and women against God, by getting us to focus on ourselves.
Every day we are challenged to focus selfishly on self. Today’s instant gratification, pleasure for the sake of pleasure, and the reducing of the self to a sex object without commitment and restraint, are just a few of the examples of what is being demanded of us and what we are giving in to.
Selfish pleasure and instant gratification are the hallmarks of our participation with a world in rebellion against God.
Jesus asked his disciples if they really understood who he was. And then explained what that designation implied for Him and what it would imply for them. For Him it was Calvary’s cross, and for them it was a daily carrying of their own cross through self-denial.
Until we can deny things and the self to place God first in our lives, we are far away from the example of Christ our Lord.
A lot of what this world offers us today, instant gratification, is in direct contrast to what’s required of the true disciple. The true disciple is called to self-denial and cross-carrying daily till Jesus comes.
Self-denial, however, is not a call to gloom, doom, and sadness. Jesus said “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:11
The call to self-denial is not a call to be destitute; it’s a call to recognise that everything we have belongs to God in the first place.
Think on these things:
- In the context of the present social, economic, cultural and technological structures in which we live how do we apply Jesus’ demands for self-denial?
- What decisions are we making about the things we acquire and the place they occupy in our lives?
- What decisions are we making about our bodies, what we put it then, what we take out of them, what we put on them, what we take off them, that considers the requirement for self-denial?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would follow the example of Jesus and take up our own cross daily.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex