“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
Life is full of crossroads where we will either do “this or that.” The choices we make declare what we call good and right. But what may be good and right to us may not be pleasing in the sight of God. Whose pleasure are we living for – our own, or His?
To daily follow the Lord requires that we deny ourselves. The cross awaits us at many a crossroads. Who will we be denying – the Lord who bought us with His own blood to make us no longer our own, doing with our lives as we please; or, ourselves?
Of Jesus we read: “For even Christ pleased not himself …” (Rom. 15:3) He said of Himself: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (John 6:38) The cross of Christ was anything but pleasurable. Jesus could have turned away from the cross, saving Himself from horrible pain; but He endured the cross because He was a lover of God more than a lover of His own pleasure.
Paul told us that in the last days an anti-Christ spirit would wax greater and greater, because men would be “… lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4) It really is that simple. Life, on a daily basis, reveals our love life. Do we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, enough to choose pleasing Him over pleasing ourselves? The crossroads of life that appear before us, day by day, will answer that question. Learn to say, “Lord, I love You more.”