What About Me?

If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. [Luke 17.33]

What does this say to all our self-preservation, self-help, and self-centeredness today? I think it says we are fatally flawed in our infatuation of self!

"Self awareness" is a big buzzword today also. What does that mean? Look it up - it's a mess of concentration upon oneself. That, in and of itself, should alert the Bible believer that something is amiss.

Jesus did address issues regarding self as we see in Luke 17.33. However, Jesus did not deal with self as we do today! Instead of focusing on self, Jesus was very clear that self was a force to be ignored and dismissed. Self stands in the way of a genuine relationship with God. As counterintuitive as it may seem, self stands in the way of life. An embrace of self is an embrace with death.

Jesus did not just teach self abasement, but He lived it out in ultimate form. Jesus willingly submitted to the Cross for the greater good of mankind. Jesus used no unclear language in declaring the necessity for us to embrace our own cross as evidence of having fully submitted to Him.

Every one of us must come to terms with Luke 17.33. It is not simply an occasional sermon topic, good idea, or inspirational exercise. Luke 17.33 stands as the dividing line between those who are God's and those who are not. 

Is it any wonder the world is so focused then on self? The pandemic spiritual disease of self-centeredness is infinitely worse than any virus will ever be.

Until we see the world's obsession with self for what it is - purely demonic and idolatrous, we are of no consequence to Satan and of no benefit to the Kingdom of God. 

Self-centeredness is the opposite of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said it best:

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. [John 3.30]

Father, take my life that Christ might be glorified in me. May I experience only a heightened awareness of Christ in me with no reserved thought for self.