FOR WE WHO ARE ALIVE ARE ALWAYS BEING GIVEN OVER TO DEATH FOR JESUS’ SAKE, SO THAT HIS LIFE MAY BE REVEALED IN OUR MORTAL BODY
(2 Corinthians 4:11).

I have realized recently how many times a day Self, the OLD ME character the father-of-lies has shaped in me, needs to be given over to death, so that the Life of Jesus might be revealed through my actions and reactions.

There are so many opportunities in my daily life where I have a choice to give Self over to death, for Jesus’ sake.  There are the times when my Self feels threatened by other people’s successes.  There are the times when my OLD ME character feels attacked by other people’s selfishness.  There are the times when I feel discouraged, alone, and afraid. The sin that lives in Self so easily hinders and entangles.

The other day I felt my Self cancelled by someone’s selfish remarks. When I took the pain of feeling annulled and deleted to the Lord Jesus, He answered, “But your Self DOES need to be cancelled, so that I may live in you. Stop defending your Self…and let it die.”

LET US THROW OFF EVERYTHING THAT HINDERS
AND THE SIN THAT SO EASILY ENTANGLES,
AND LET US RUN WITH PERSEVERANCE THE RACE MARKED OUT FOR US
(Hebrews 12:1).

I bless you to throw off everything that hinders the Life of the Lord Jesus being revealed in your actions and reactions, even if it means that your Self gets knocked off its throne.

What will it take for you to stop defending your OLD ME…and let it die? Are you willing to allow the Lord Jesus to use another person’s selfishness to delete, annul, or cancel your Self?

Know that the only way to give Self over to death is to give Self over to JESUS, every day, a hundred times a day, whenever it is provoked.  JESUS IS YOUR SAVIOR.  All authority has been given to Him.  He is the only one who has the power to tie the noose around Self and its sinful habits and patterns.  Since there is only space for one or the other in your body, will you allow Jesus to get rid of Self and put HIMSELF in its place?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, let me run with perseverance the race marked out for me. Help me to realize that each person’s race is customized and that I cannot run another person’s race for her/him and that another person cannot run my race for me. I surrender my Self to You—the OLD ME with its sin that so often hinders and entangles. Knock it off its throne, Lord God, and take Your rightful place on the throne in my heart.