Being a disciple, a student of The Teacher, Jesus, is WHO we now are in Christ. Now we must learn to live as a disciple.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’” Mt 16:24 NIV
When we get this, that we are now His student, we begin to be transformed into His likeness. How? The first step is to deny ourselves. I think too many of us misread that as “indulge ourselves”! Sadly, some think, “Well, God has forgiven me all my sins- past, present and future- so it is party time!” These folks need to check their heart. As I said yesterday, when we start to get the depth of what Jesus did, the gratitude we feel should move us to pour out our lives for Him, just like He did for us. And this starts with denying ourselves.
This doesn’t mean we deny what we have thoughts, feelings and wants. We are not to live a delusional life, where we pretend we don’t have those soulful inclinations. But what we do is what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are real with God and tell Him what we are thinking, feeling and wanting, or as with Jesus, not wanting…but then we surrender all of that to God in Faith, trusting that His Will is the best plan for our lives. Denying ourselves is choosing to not act according to our own old, MMI way, and choosing to do whatever the Lord leads us to do instead.
A simple example would be, say I am wanting to lose weight, because I still am, but then my mind goes to that chocolate cake a guest brought to my house that is still in my refrigerator. Quickly my emotions get on board and I want to eat that cake. But before I get up and go to the fridge, I stop and pray: “Lord, You know how much I want a nice, big slice of that yummy cake right now. But I also know You want me to be healthy because that is what is best for me. So, please give me the strength to deny myself and do Your Will instead. Amen.” Many times this prayer works powerfully as we decide to do the right thing…but even in those times it doesn’t work…well, let’s continue tomorrow…
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
35- Mt 16:24
<>< Peace, Diane
