Day One

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.'"  

Matthew 16:24

Jesus' words were unmistakable to his disciples. They knew what crosses were, not charms worn on necklaces or designs in tattoo parlors. The cross was an instrument of execution, one of the most violent and horrible ever invented by evil men. Jesus was telling his disciples what it would require if they were to follow Him, and He certainly didn't candy coat it. He made it clear that the cost would be high, for some of them it would cost their lives, for others it would not. But for all who choose to follow Christ there is a choice to make: death to self and devotion to Him.

What does dying to self look like? It means to deny all things carnal, sinful, unrighteous, and selfish and instead choose to follow Jesus in love, purity, faithfulness, joy and holiness.

But God doesn't take it for granted that we will follow Him. Jesus gives us a choice. He doesn't try to get us to pack our bags for a guilt trip. He doesn't make us do anything, He simply offers the path with all its hardships and joys.

Jesus' words come down to three basic principles:

1. deny yourself.
2. take up your cross.
3. follow Me.

Death to self is different for everyone, because we all struggle in different areas. Think of your selfishness as a hungry wolf that consumes anything and everything it can find. To deny it means: don't feed it! Identify the source of food for your selfishness, and run away from those things!

Denying yourself means saying "No!" to selfishness. The next part of Jesus' statement is saying "Yes!" to Him: "Take up your cross." Why did Jesus go to the cross? Because He wanted too? He pleaded with the Father, prayed in agony, sweating blood about dying such a horrible death. But His commitment to obey the Father was greater than his desire for comfort and approval. So He went to the cross.

That's what it means for you and me too: to obey God no matter what He asks us, and no matter how much we don't want to do it, finding our ultimate reward in knowing our God is honored in our obedience. It is a hard gospel, but He isn't asking us to do anything He hasn't already done to a far greater degree than we will ever do.

The final, and best, part of the trio is our invitation to follow Him. As God strengthens us, we make those daily decision to say "No" to selfishness and "Yes" to God, we walk side by side with Jesus Christ. When we read the Scriptures, we hear His voice. As we walk through our day, we sense His presence. We reap love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. My friends, this is the abundant life.

[Just in case you didn't read the former post, I'm recapping what I learn each day from A Call to Die, by David Nasser. So obviously, these are not my original ideas, and much of what I've said are direct quotes from the book. I know I should properly quote it and all that jazz, but this is a blog not a book for publishing. Plus, I just really hate all that works cited rif-raf. Just know, all the credit goes to David, but really these aren't new ideas, they're straight out of Scripture, so...]