God's Word to the Wise

Luke 9:23: 
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”.

Like Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:9-24) I too was guilty of “accepting” Jesus for what I thought He could and was to do for me. Now to be fair I was 11 years old and listening to Kyle Thurman preach when I made this decision. I said and did what I was told was necessary to begin this relationship. I admitted I was a sinner, and I prayed and asked Jesus to come into my heart. He didn’t!

Fast forward some 25 years. After multiple attempts to do a great thing for Jesus(?) and each time God responded to each attempt with a resounding NO, I crashed and burned. Yes I did a lot of different things over that time, but each thing was for my glory and God knew that. I would begin each thing full of vim, vigor, and energy and quickly crash and burn. The final attempt was my brief political career.

I thought that Jesus was supposed to clear a path to success. He wasn’t and He didn’t. After years of rebelling against God’s insistence of doing things His way I finally relented, and 34 years later here I am; an old man grasping at the straws of my past in an effort to be someone I never was. I repeatedly tell everybody about my “Glory Days” and frankly, it is wearing thin. I am bragging about the very things God said NO to. Yes, I did those things, but why do I tell these stories? (PRIDE)

It is impossible to count how many days I have determined to not tell these stories and to stop talking about myself. Each time I have failed. This, as well as other sins is why I recently wrote that the only way to stop sinning is to die. When I wrote this I meant to actually die, become worm food. Then today the thought came to me. I need to die to myself. 36 years ago I “Surrendered” to God’s will, but I have come to realize that I have not surrendered all. I have not died to self. It really is all about me!

Jesus didn’t die on a cross to give my life meaning or to make me prosper in whatever I set my mind to do, and most certainly, to give me something to brag about. He died to pay the penalty for sin, my sin and to save me from God’s justice due to me. He died to deliver me from God’s just wrath against the very things for which I have been boasting.

I close this post with a question. This supposedly mature, know-it-all pastor needs to know, “How do I die to self?”