Self-Denial

The true gospel is a call to self-denial. It is not a call to self-fulfillment. —John MacArthur

Matthew 16: ²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life^[f] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. 

As much as I rant about the 'age of entitlement' that I see so rampant in our culture, I'm as guilty of it as the next person. I want to live out this Scripture - I want to deny myself, take up my cross and follow Christ - but I fail every single day. I am selfish. I put my own needs and desires before that of others - including my family. Deep down, though I hate to admit it, I sometime think I 'deserve' something. I think after taking care of my kids, cooking, cleaning (well, sometimes cleaning), working, etc I 'deserve' some 'me' time. I think that after being so budget conscious for years I 'deserve' to buy something nice for myself. I think that after the financial struggles we've encountered, we 'deserve' a break - some miracle to happen that wipes out our debt.


Deserve has become a 4-letter word to me. I deserve hell, plain & simple. That's it. I've earned nothing, and all that I am and all that I have is because of God's grace alone. I have started to cringe when I hear the word deserve, because I know it's so far off from what Scripture tells us. I've decided to try and never use the word again (except in the deep places of my heart when I secretly think I really do deserve something).


Instead of "I DESERVE" being the mantra of our time and culture, what if we get rid of the DE and make it an attitude of "I SERVE"? What would happen? What if I did this in my family, my ministry, my community? What if my attitude was transformed so much by the power of the Spirit in me that I could truly deny myself and SERVE Christ with all that I am? 


This can only come from daily surrender to Christ through prayer. Praying for a heart that is surrendered to Christ and a willingness to serve those around me this week.

I knew it!

I knew we were having a girl! We have had our boy name since Isaac was born and  have NO idea what to name another girl, so it had to be a girl! :)

Baby is looking good and I'm in second trimester bliss. We are blessed.