THE DAILY STRUGGLE OF DYING TO SELF
How many times have you heard Jesus quoted as saying " Deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me"? This isn't just some saying that people use, or that Jesus used to cause others to follow after Him, but it is the only way that we can continue to renew ourselves through God's Spirit on a daily basis.
As we build a relationship with God and as we gain His trust and, He ours; we must be willing to continue one with Him to have a deeper walk each day. That part of our relationship must become a ritual almost for us. If there is anything about our building a relationship with God that can be considered religious it is that we must develop a habit of seeking after Him each day before we get into our daily routine. Unless we develop this as a part of our natural daily habit we will soon fall away from it because seeking God is not a part of this natural world. I believe that is one of the reasons that prayer is so important, and should be the first habit that we try to develop in our Christian experiences. The scripture tells us to " ASK, SEEK, AND KNOCK" which means we need to learn how to trust God through these areas first in our Christian walk. If you will notice it is prayer or our communication with God that opens up all of the other doors to Him. There are many people trying to seek and knock on God's door with their requests who have never yet learned to speak with Him first.
There is some needed preparation for prayer and having lasting communication with God that is both fulfilling to you as well as to God that needs to be explored further. When we speak with Good we should not go in with guns blazing, but prepare our hearts for a deeper and more meaningful time with God by looking at our attitude and our true hearts desire before we come to Him in prayer. I find that if I take the time to listen to His word either by reading a passage or by listening to a devotional from somewhere I give Him a chance to speak with me before I start. There may be something that God wants to speak to me about as well as hearing from me what I want from Him.
We need to acknowledge who God really is in our hearts before we speak to Him out of respect for Him. After that, we need to take the time to thank Him for all that He has already provided for us, and then ask Him to continue to do His will in our lives that day. By the time we open up to Him with those thoughts our hearts and our minds should be reminded of who we are talking to, and it might even temper what we are going to ask for if we get a sense that it is self-centered. We need to realize that God already knows the truth about your heart, and what it is that you really want to talk about so you are not going to fool Him. This is only the very first part of the process of dying to self in your day. The rest of the day will at first be spent in reminding yourself that you need to die to those knee-jerk responses you may have always had to things that have caused you to always before be a part of the world around you. I can tell you that for the first few weeks that will be an almost moment to moment fight. It will be a fight that you will no doubt lose many times in a day before you can really catch yourself and prevent it from happening. The point is that as we continue to approach God in prayer daily and practicing these attempts at change within our behavior things will get better. They won't get better because of anything that you are changing but because God's love through the Holy Spirit is causing you to become transformed into a new person. After a while, it may be someone that you don't even recognize as the old you, but I know for sure that for someone who has been watching you they will see a great change, and the Holy Spirit will bear witness through their personal reaction to you. If you need any help with prayer in your life don't hesitate to contact me...may you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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