To Live You Must Die

[girlafterGod]

These past few months God has been teaching me alot about, denying myself and acknowledging that His ways are not my ways. And just last week God layed upon my heart two key scriptures that deal with this. The are both find in Matthew; 16:24-26 and 10:38-39. (I also wanted all of you to read it in The Message Version. It bring the verses into a new light. So the first version is in the New Living, then The message.)

   
     16:24-26(NLT) "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?"
     (MSG) "Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?"

     10:38-39(NLT) "If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it."
     (MSG) "If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me."

      In the first passage Jesus instructs us to "turn from our selfish ways". This means that your flesh, your worldly desires are going to die! And believe me when i say this won't be easy unless you ask for Gods strength. When you begin to die to your self, the war with in your soul begins to get intense. This is when the enemy becomes desperate, because he knows that he is loosing. But what i have to say is that he better get used to it! Jesus goes on to say to "take up your cross, and follow me." Then Jesus says something i am sure His disciples were confused by, i can imagine one of His followers responding; "Let me get this straight you want us to give up our lives, so we can live?" It's a crazy thought but back during that time everything Jesus said was crazy...... What He is saying here is that we need to crucify our flesh on the cross, and by doing this we will know what it is like to really live. The next passage really pierces your heart. It Jesus tells us that if we don't take up our crosses and follow Him, are you ready for this......WE ARE NOT WORTHY OF BEING MINE. Whoa, that's is a powerful statement! That statement alone shook my to the very core of my being. This whole bussines dealing with Jesus's instructions to die to our selves and to take up our cross and follow Him is something that can't be taken lightly. I encourage all of you to take the time this week to examine you heart and ask your self if you are taking up your cross daily?               Be Blessed! Your Sister In Christ, GirlafterGod

                                                                   

[Jenni]

This is really good Girlaftergod. I think God reveals to us the things that we must die to and then we must be willing to make changes. He also gives us the ability to be changed into his image if our hearts are sincere.


Turning from selfish ways is not always easy but when we ask God for help he always answers our prayers. We must begin to make the turn though.


Excellent post....thans

[girlafterGod]

Thanks for the comment! I am just glad that i was able to help someone else with my struggles. I have this HUGE "God Thing", to share with all of you. So after i posted yesterday i went to youth group later on that evening. The topic was Honesty. And 3/4ths the way through the sermon, my youth pastor used the same passages i had used in my post!!! My Youth Pastor talked about dying to your self and taking up your cross daily, and doing this all with honesty. When he began talking about those passages, the tears began to roll down my face. It was only conformation of what God has already been speaking to my heart. Isn't that so cool! All glory to God, AMEN!!!!! Be Blessed,

[Jordy]

Great topic Girl After God!!
If we really want to see people touched by God through our lives, what you shared is
is the key.

 I must decrease so that he must increase-More of Jesus less of me.


How do we do we turn from our selfish ways?

The key word is turn.

[girlafterGod]

With only His strength. The sooner we realize this the less heart ache we will have to experience. When we cry out to God this is telling Him that all of our efforts arn't enough, that we need Him. This is when He sweetly whispers into your ear, "You my daughter can do all things IN me, for I AM the place your strength comes from."(Philippians 4:13)