Luke 9:23 “ Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” This episode talks about how importance self-sacrifice is to our spiritual growth. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Deny Yourself
Luke 9:23 “ Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Those words, “Deny themselves and take up their cross daily” have been rolling around in my brain for about a week now. I know I have talked about this before and I probably will continue to talk about it because I know I am not the only person who struggles with this. I struggle with denying myself. Actually sometimes I am really good at it. Sometimes I make up my mind to do something and I do it well. For instance, I used to participate in this thing called the last 90 days. This is when you would live intentionally for the last 90 days of the year. Usually we all decide on January 1st each new year we are going to live better. We are going to eat better, exercise more, pray more, be nicer, and so many other things that we have forgotten about 10 days into the year. However, the last 90 days of the year, or at least the last 45 or so, we tend to eat more and exercise less. In these last 90 days of the year, we have Halloween, where most of us eat too much candy, then we have Thanksgiving where we tend to eat too much in general, and then the Christmas season lasts pretty much the whole month of December between work, family and friend parties. Many of us tend not to worry too much about how much we are eating or exercising because we are going to get back on track at the beginning of the new year. Is this how you enter the new year? The last 90 days challenge was meant to challenge us to live the last 90 days with the same intention that we want to the live at the beginning of the new year. Plus, how great would it be to go into the new year with the momentum of having just lived 90 days really well?
The last 90 days is not the purpose of this episode, I was just explaining to you how I can do really well sometimes. I have fasted once a week before for several months, I have had times when I said the rosary every day. I have had times when I attended mass everyday. I guess I don’t always struggle with denying myself, but currently the struggle is real. I do seem to struggle frequently with denying myself and taking up my cross. I don’t even know how it happens? It seems like I and doing great, eating right, exercising, and waking up for prayer time in the mornings and then something happens. It doesn’t have to even be something big. Something happens and I start sleeping through prayer time, or eating junk food whenever I want it, or skipping my exercise and then one things leads to another and I end up where I am right now. I end up in a place where I don’t think twice about having a cookie, just because I want it. Or, even worse, I do think twice and I have it anyway. I sit and watch TV even though their are other things I know the Lord is calling me to do just because I really want to see what happens in my show. Does this happen to you? Maybe your thing isn’t TV and its not food, but do you have something that you know you should be denying yourself from and yet you aren’t?
The verse above is from the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition Bible. This is the version I tend to use most often as it is the newest version of the Bible that I just bought. However, sometimes I really like to read the Message translation or other translations to see how they differ. I usually use the website biblegateway.com to look up the bible verses. I really like the message translation of this verse. The message translation usually doesn’t just have one verse, it has several verses grouped together. Here is the Message translation of Luke 9:23-27, “Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “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 good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I’m leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn’t, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God.”
I like the message translation because it puts it in terms we can relate to today. It has a way of explaining the Bible in layman’s terms for lack of a better explanation. First the verse starts by saying if we want to come with Jesus, we need to let Him lead us, we are not in the driver’s seat. How many of us needed to hear that today? Be honest, did you need that gentle reminder that God is in the driver’s seat? It’s ok, we all forget this at times. Thankfully we have a forgiving God that gently reminds us when we forget. Next it says, don’t run from suffering, embrace it. That doesn’t sound fun. I don’t think any one of us wants to embrace suffering. However, so much growth can come from suffering. We can grow in our faith so much more when we embrace struggling. Struggling is a part of life, it is never easy to struggle, however, it gets easier when we embrace it and stop fighting it. Steven Furtick from Elevation Church said in his sermon this week that he has been able to find the most peace in a situation when he has allowed God to explain everything later. We don’t usually know why we have to go through a struggle while we are going through it and yet most of the time, further down the road, we understand what the struggle was for.
Next it says, “Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all.” If we follow God, He will show us the way. We are never alone on this journey. And yet, how many times have we tried to do it all ourselves. I don’t think God is saying we should never do anything to help ourselves. I think He is saying we don’t have to do it All ourselves. We don’t have to do it without Him. Invite Him in, lean on Him, and He will help, He will show us how. Here is where we get to the part I am struggling with right now. “Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.” Why is self-sacrifice is so hard? Why is it so important? It says right in this verse why it is so important. It is the way, God’s way. Jesus was the best example of self-sacrifice we could ever ask for. So was Mary. She didn’t even hesitate before she said yes to the sacrifice of having Jesus. It was not a popular decision. She didn’t gain any friends by saying yes. She was almost disowned by Joseph because she was pregnant before they were married. She knew it wouldn’t be easy and yet she said yes. Actually, she didn’t even take the time to think about whether it would be easy or not. God asked her to do something and she said yes, without hesitation.
When is the last time God asked you to do something and you said yes without hesitation? When have you said yes to God without at least pausing and seeing how easy or hard it would be for you? We have some great examples in the Bible of people who were great at self-sacrifice. Daniel opted to get thrown in the lion’s den instead of agreeing to stop praying. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego opted to be thrown in a fiery furnace instead of bowing down to a golden statue. There are countless examples in the Bible of what people would sacrifice and yet I struggle to deny myself a cookie? I struggle to get up and pray in the morning when Daniel fought for his right to pray 5 times a day. I know my struggle is not the same as theirs. I am using their ability sacrifice as a model we can all look up to. I think we down play the significance of our struggle to sacrifice. I know I do. I tell myself God doesn’t really care if I eat this cookie. It is not doing anyone harm. This could be true. I don’t think God cares in general if we eat cookies. I do think He cares if we eat cookies, if we promised ourselves we wouldn’t. I do think he cares if we eat so many cookies that we make ourselves sick. I also don’t think God generally minds if we sleep in. I do think He minds if we sleep in when we made an appointment with Him to show up and pray. I do think He minds when we spend all day in bed to a point where we are not taking car of ourselves.
Does this make sense? Can you see the difference? Self-sacrifice is important. We are not meant to have every little thing that we want. We are not meant to want things of this world more than we want to be with God. Another line in this verse that is so good is, “What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?” This is something for us all to ponder. If self-sacrifice is the way to find ourselves, what does that mean if we aren’t doing it? What good does it do if we spend this whole life eating what we want, doing what we want, with no thought as to how it is affecting God or how it is affecting our soul? What good does it do if we get everything we want here on this world and yet lose the one thing that is most important our heavenly Father and our eternal life with Him in heaven. Would you trade all of that for the choices you are making right now? Would it help us struggle less if we realized that was the choice we were making? I am not saying we can’t enjoy life on earth. It says in John 10:10 “I came that they may have life and have it to the full.” God wants us to enjoy and live a full life. That doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want. Just like we love our children and want them to enjoy life and yet you have to have rules so they can enjoy life. The same is true with us. Self-sacrifice is the way. Give it a try this week. What can you sacrifice in order to spend more time with the Lord, or to show God how much He means to you? If we want to follow Christ we must deny ourselves. How can you do this, what is one small way you can deny yourself this week? I am going to stop watching my TV show. How are about you?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask for your help to show us how to deny ourselves and take up our cross to follow you. We want to follow you Lord, show us how. Lord help us to be strong like so many that came before us. Help us to have the courage to give up the things we are putting before you. Help us to see those things as the false gods that they are. Help us to put you first and to love you more than anything. You are so amazing Lord. You are the Lamb of Lambs and the Light of the World. We are truly grateful for all you do for us and we are sorry if our actions don’t always show it. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!