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.
We live in a day and age that everywhere we turn, there’s a “self-help” theory. Books, videos and DVDs, websites, world-renown speakers, you name it — all dedicated to helping us “feel good about ourselves”. Yet somehow, still many of us struggle with self-consciousness, even as Christians!
But here’s something to consider. Did Jesus ever say “feel good about yourself”?? No. On the contrary, He said crucify yourself!
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 a wise thing recently: self-consciousness is not God-consciousness! That about sums it up, I think. God doesn’t want us focused on ourselves — He wants us to be focused on Him!
It’s when we die to our flesh, that the life we’re living becomes the life He lives through us! If we crucify our self then there’s no self to hate — there’s no self to condemn! We are free to serve the Lord and allow him to do great things 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.