Matthew 16:24-25 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Everywhere we look today, there’s some kind of “self-help” advice—books, podcasts, videos, websites, even world-famous speakers—all telling us how to feel better about ourselves. And yet, so many of us still wrestle with self-doubt, even as believers!
But let’s think about this for a second. Did Yeshua (Jesus) ever say, “Just feel good about yourself”? No, He actually told us to crucify ourselves!
If we go around hating ourselves and even feeling condemnation over our faults and sins, what we are really doing is focusing on our self! My wife said something really wise the other day: Self-consciousness is not God-consciousness. And that’s the truth. God doesn’t want us fixated on ourselves — He wants our eyes on Him!
When we lay down our flesh and surrender fully, it’s no longer us trying to live this life — it’s about Him living through us! And if our old self is crucified, there’s no self left to hate, no self left to condemn. That’s real freedom! We’re free to serve the Lord and let Him do amazing things through us.
So let’s stop looking in the mirror and start looking up—because the more we focus on Him, the more He shines through us!
what a great thought and comment. I find that very helpful
I think there is a thin line between condemning yourself and examining who we are. Identifying that We are sinners in front of God is something that I always do, and yes the Spirit directs me to Jesus and condemns the way I live which I find healthy and mind opening because SIN is always a bad thing in God’s eyes.
Your wife is right, then our self-consciousness is God, a God-consciousness would mean there is me and God, but it is not. Mine, yours, his self-consciousness is God, we are all part of God and God is all part of us, since God is our self-consciousness.
Jesus saw this and this brilliant guy found a way to teach us how to handle it, how to find the means to live effectively together, but he did more, he turned around a world based on revenge to a world of forgiveness, not forgetness, not the same. He set the rules and taught how to apply them with very simple words. This genius wrapped up a very complex subject in a few pages and managed that to a great extend people followed him into this complete new direction.