Die to Self

2 Corinthians 4:10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

2 Cor 4:13 references Psalm 116:10; Psalm 116:9-10 - I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore I said, "I am greatly afflicted".

As we come into obedience to God, we realize that we will suffer...physically or emotionally or otherwise for the sake of the gospel. Yet we trust in God and by faith believe that we are producing an eternal glory and will be raised with Christ (2 Cor 4:12-18). Therefore we do not give up when faced with momentary affliction but continue on for the sake of Christ and for the lives of others.

I believe the psalmist in Psalm 116 cried out to God in truth and entrusted Him even in his frustration & affliction. He didn't just give God his best, he had enough faith to believe at he could come to Him even in his negativity and frustration.

Walk in Christ TODAY. Die to self. Bring Him everything. Hope. Trust. Realize there is something greater. Look to the eternal instead of the temporal. Have faith to walk before the Lord now and be strengthened to die to self for the sake of Christ.

I came across this blog this morning.....

http://seacoasthsm.blogspot.com/

4.08.2013Learn To Die

The health and success of your ministry really are a matter of life and death. If you are ever going to be in ambassador in the hands of the God of glorious and powerful grace, you must die.

You must die to your plans for your own life.

You must die to your self- focused dreams of success.

You must die to your demands for comfort and ease.

You must die to your individual definition of the good life.

You must die to your demands for pleasure, acclaim, prominence, and respect.

You must die to your desire to be in control.

You must die to your hope for independent righteousness.

You must die to your plans for others.

You must die to your craving for a certain lifestyle or that particular location.

You must die to your own kingship.

You must die to the pursuit of your own glory in order to take up the cause of the glory of Another.

You must die to your control over your own time.

You must die to your maintenance of your reputation.

You must die to having the final answer and getting your own way.

You must die to your unfaltering confidence in you.

You must die.

And nothing helps “kill us” like private personal worship does. Your private devotional life has the power to kill the “me-ism” that is inside you (and me) that will again and again cause you to be in the way of, rather than part of, whatever it is that God is doing at the moment. Private personal worship is it an effective tool of grace in the hands of God to kill those things in you that must die in order that you be what you have been called to be and do what you have been appointed to do in your place of ministry.