We are programmed to think that when we are the most important and when we take care of ‘me’ first then all will be well. But that is false. It is a burden. A slavemaster. It is living in a self-made cage of your own abilities, desires, and character traits. Self is never satisfied. Best to throw away that idea. 

Living from the cross brings freedom. The cross is the key that unlocks the door of our self-made cage. We are now:

• Dead to the past, to self
• Alive to God
• 2 sides of coin/cross

Luke 9:23  two negatives and one positive. But, oh that one positive. It is the Abundant life.

Self no longer controls me. I am not my own slave. I am free. I don’t have to listen to my wants, my worries, my default settings. I’m out of the cage. 

The scariest part in relinquishing my life was not knowing the result. Not knowing I could trust God. That I would be a nothing. Humans need significance, but it isn’t to be grasped at.

We don’t need self-esteem, much to the dismay of the secular counselors and many Christian counselors. Self is never satisfied. I’ve learned that in giving up trying to make myself feel better, for the life of Christ, I find joy I never knew existed. 

Let’s believe what the Bible says. Jesus promises an Abundant life. However, it is not making our life better or taking it to a new level. It is ignoring our ‘self’, and allowing Him to live for us and in us. It is putting self on the cross, burying it, and keeping it in the coffin. Then we can be free to be full of Him. Being full of Him is being full of the fruits of the spirit, the Abundant life lived from the cross.

In giving up all, living from the cross, I find I am completely fulfilled. Suddenly, I am full. Giving up self, denying self releases my spirit to be one with His Spirit. My destiny. So much joy! 

Such a paradox!

Words to light your path this week

• 2 Corinthians 5:15 …and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. NKJV
• Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  NKJV
• Romans 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  NKJV
• Colossians 3:1 If you then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  NKJV
• Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  NKJV

Lord Jesus, I want to be free from self. Help me to see that when You died, I died. When You were buried, my old self, my own abilities were buried with You. And when You were raised, I was raised with You to a new life. Help me to walk in this new life by faith. Amen

Would you like to go deeper into this concept?

The Changed Center Through the Cross, Jessie Penn-Lewis, The Centrality of the Cross

Exchanged Life