Die to Self

TODAY'S POST BY DIANE WARD

We struggle with the concept of dying to self. Innately we are hard-wired for self-preservation. Each day is like an over-filled water balloon at breaking point with self-absorption, self-confidence, self-conscientiousness and self-serving - the essence of the word selfish.

We fight against the lordship of Christ as we spin and become entrapped in webs of self-concerns and desires. Only through death to self can we experience all that Jesus offers.

He said by seeking Him first we can expect to receive all the other things we desire (Matt. 6:33). When we die to self, we are no longer looking for empty praise of others. We don’t serve to be recognized. We are not seeking to rub shoulders with the “movers and shakers.”

Someone once observed, “The true test of a servant is if you act like one when you are treated like one – (like one who has died to self.) Let’s fix our eyes on what is unseen” (1 Cor. 4:18.) Let’s count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6:11.) Let’s present ourselves to Christ as gifts, as living sacrifices-our gifts of worship” (Rom 12:1).

Help me, dear Lord, to make my presentation to you a passionate choice, and not a passive concession!

Flame of God

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on me,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakening’s,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified)
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Amy Wilson-Carmichael. Missionary to India (1867-1951)

Matthew 10:34-42