Everything seems so perfect when our plans, dreams, and goals are working out for us, but is our plan God’s plan? Is it possible that we have convinced ourselves that what we want out of life is the same as what God wants of us?
Mark 8:34 says, “And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
The phrase “deny himself” has been ringing in my head all week. It doesn’t say that we can have it our way, or that we can have it part our way and part God’s way. We have to completely deny ourselves and adopt the will of God as our own. This week I have been asking myself the following questions:
- Am I trying to please myself by disguising it as pleasing God?
- Are my plans my own or God’s?
- Am I surrendering my own desires and ambitions because I want to be used by God?
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says, “ For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
I have been on my face before God this week asking forgiveness for not always denying my plans, my ambitions, my selfishness, and myself. We all have to make a choice to live for the glory of God, or for ourselves. What a freeing blessing it is when we decide to deny ourselves and follow Him.
