If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Luke 9:23
Denying ourselves in not the same as self-denial. Athletes, politicians, and publicity seekers deny themselves certain pleasures to win or to promote themselves. Self is still the dominate force. Denying self is abdicating self-rule. God never designed our souls to function as masters. Self-seeking, self-serving, self-justifying, self-glorifying, self-centered, and self-confident living is in actuality serving the world, the flesh, and the devil.
We have to die to ourselves to live in Christ. We are forgiven because He died in our place. We are delivered because we have died with Him. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20).
If we hold on to our natural identity and earthly inheritance, we rob ourselves of an infinitely better spiritual identity and an eternal inheritance. Jesus said, "Follow Me." Self will never cast out self; we have to be led into it by the Holy Spirit. "We who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11).
This devotional is an excerpt from The Bondage Breaker Devotional by Neil T. Anderson.
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.
