Did you guess it? The verse in Mark’s Gospel chapter 8 is verse 34. Let me read it to you: “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’” (ESV)
There seems to be three powerful steps, one that builds upon the next, that will help us receive more of the Freedom so that we can, not only know the right things to do, but then actually do them. These steps help us say NO to Pride, and YES to Humility, so that we will connect with God, receive His Love and live the holy, healthy life we were always meant to live.
The first step is to deny yourself. Now this is not commanding us to live a life of delusion, pretending like we are perfect already and have no struggles. That would be a lie, and since God is Truth, He would never tell us to do this. What “deny yourself” means is, understanding you are struggling, but not giving in to the struggle. We are to not allow that thought, feeling or desire to rule over us, to dictate how we will act. For instance, let’s keep this simple, so say old Jezebel starts craving some potato chips, as she is prone to do…since I really want to get healthy I know I cannot indulge in chips every day, so when she tries to convince me to go to the store to buy a bag and have my fill…I have to acknowledge this struggle, then CHOOSE to run to God instead of the local 7/11!
The whole time God is cheering us on…He is drawing us to Himself so we can connect and have the strength to say “NO!” He will provide healthy options for us to munch on. He will satisfy a deep longing in our hearts to be with Him at peace, with no struggles. He will do everything around us, but He will NOT choose for us. We must learn, with His help, to deny those things that are not from Him. To say NO to the things that will lead us away from a healthy life. To say YES to continuing in this transformation to be more and more like Jesus. The burden is never on us alone, after all there is no way we can carry this cross alone…more tomorrow
1- Deny yourself
<>< Peace, Diane
