The Fifth SELF

Lu.9:²³ “Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”

We need to take Self-righteousness, Self-confidence, Self-deception and Self-centeredness to The Cross daily and nail it to The Cross. In our marriages, if we successfully arrest and nail self to The Cross, our marriages will be so sweet. I do not think couples will ever want to be away from each other. Most problems in marriages can be linked to self and by God’s grace as we nail self to The Cross in this season, there will be no more marital problems.

The fifth thing we need to take to The Cross is Self-hatred. There are so many people that do not like their own selves. A lot of people struggle with believing that God loves them. These kinds of thoughts hinder the flow of resurrection power. Every time self-hatred rears it’s ugly head in your thoughts or you doubt God’s love for you, look at The Cross. Doubting God’s love is a trap the enemy uses to truncate the flow of resurrection power in our lives. God has demonstrated His love for you already and He demonstrated it openly on The Cross.

Every time you doubt that God loves you, look at The Cross. Every time you doubt that God loves you, imagine the nails that were driven through Jesus’ hands. That is how much God loves you -He did not spare Jesus for you. God really, really loves you. The challenge with a lot of people is they have grown up in environments where love must be earned. A lot of people had to fight to earn their parent’s love. People get married only to discover that they also need to earn the love of their spouse. So they constantly try to please the other person just to earn their love. And guess what? People are stingy with their love. But God loves you with an everlasting love – with a forever love. He loves you completely.

Death to self-righteousness, death to self-confidence, death to self-deception, death to self-centeredness, and death to self-hatred leads to resurrection life and power in Jesus Christ. Our Prayer today is a Hymn, apply the words in your heart and feel the life and release God really wants you to have – which is the resurrection power.

Prayer [hymn]: When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.