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. Mathew 16:24
Bible reading is MATHEW 16:24-25
24 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.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Denying one’s self means intentionally saying no to something that gives you pleasure.
When we talk about self-denial, we mean fasting and praying when others are eating and sleeping, studying your Bible when others are watching television, keeping quiet when others are talking, et cetera.
As a Christian, if you do not cultivate the habit of self-denial, you won’t make it in your Christian walk because our Christian journey is a race.
This is why in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 , Apostle Paul said in order to win the race, he kept his body under. Under what, you may wonder?, Apostle Paul kept his body under his spirit.
As long as your spirit man is in charge, you are safe and will easily live the life you have been called to live. Dear child, you have to come to the realization of this fact now at your young age.
Your spirit man has to be in charge for you to live as a genuine Christian. And the way to achieve that is to begin to feed your spirit man more than you feed your flesh. Know when to say no.
Deny yourself that outing with friends so you can be alone to study your Bible. Deny yourself of sleep so you can pray about situations that are not going as they should.
KEY POINT
To live holy, you must be hard on your flesh. Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the works of the flesh.
JOB 40:1-24, JOB 41:1-34, JOB 42:1-17, ACTS 15:22-41