Die To Self

34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Mark 8:34-36 NKJV

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, [c] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, [d] drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:16-26 NKJV

So, what does it mean to die to self? Well, the verses above say it very clearly. It means that we should replace our desires and sinful acts that displace our ability to dedicate our lives toward serving Him. It means we need to be willing to forego our carnal desires and replace them with efforts to attain a closer relationship with God, and this is not an easy thing for any of us to do.

What in our lives are we prepared to sacrifice for Christ? How much of our time is spent serving God as opposed to work or self-indulgence? Do we think so highly of ourselves that we cannot commit to serving the God that created the universe and us. Yes, God created you! Your mother and earthly father used the tools that God gave them to induce the life creation process, but God created every one of us in the womb, where He tooled us to be the specific and unique creation that we are. We belong to Him.

Each one of us needs to do an inventory of ourselves and come to grips with the fact that God wants everything about us, our possessions, our minds, our time, and our efforts, not just what we have in excess after fulfilling our own desires. God wants to be first in our lives, above job, family, entertainment, and desires. If our self-inventory does not conclude that seeking God comes before every aspect of our lives, then we have our priorities wrong.

Randall Gibbons