Self Denial

Check out his quote from Joost De Blank, former arch-bishop of Cape Town, South Africa. "There is many a Christian who feels his conscience is prompting him to renounce some harmless amusement but whose essential self-centredness remains inviolate and unchallenged". Wow, talk about convicting. We play games with conviction. We so often feel that we are supposed to stop watching something or stop eating something or stop something in general, when Jesus has already told us what to do in Luke 9:23. He said to deny self everyday and embrace the cross. The cross was not a pretty piece of jewelry. It was an object to die on. This was and is a daily call. I don't need to stop doing this or that. I need to live a lifestyle of self-denial every moment. I need to stop thinking I am a good little Christian when I abstain from a couple of things here and there while the base of who I am still screams it's all about me!

The closer I get to Jesus, the more self-denial makes sense and the more all the little things and issues that I should or should not do just fall into place. The times when I do not pursue Jesus and His Word are the times that self-denial is the hardest and I fall back into a religious legalism. O, to walk as Jesus called me to and walk in cross-bearing self denial for His great glory!