Self-Denial

Self-Denial

by George Mcdonald

"Then he said to the crowd, 'If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it."   Luke 9:23,24

Christ is the way out, and the way in;
The way from slavery, conscious or unconscious, into liberty;
The way from the unlike-home of things to the home we desire but do not know;
The way from the stormy skirts of the Father's garments to the peace of his bosom.

He is not only the door of the sheepfold, but the shepherd of the sheep;

He is not only the way, but the leader of the way,
And the rock that followed,
And the captain of our salvation.

We must become as little children and Christ must be born in us;
We must learn of him and the one lesson he has to give is himself;
He does first of wall what he wants us to do;
He is first of all he wants us to be.

We must not merely do as he did;
We must see things as he saw them;
Regard them as he regarded them;
We must take the will of God as the very life of our being;
We must neither try to get our own way, nor trouble ourselves as to what may be thought or said of us.
The world must be nothing to us.

By the "world" I mean all ways of judging, regarding, and thinking, 
Whether political, economical, ecclesiastical, social, or individual, which are not divine,
Which are not God's way of thinking, regarding or judging,
Which do not take God into account,
Do not set his will as supreme, as the one and only law of life;

Which do not care for the truth of things, but the customs of society, or the practice of the trade;
Which heed not what is right, but the usage of the time.
From everything that is against the teaching and thinking of Jesus,
From the world in the heart of the best man in it, especially from the world in his own heart,
The disciple must turn to follow him.