BIBLE READING: PSALM 148, 149, 150; 1 CORINTHIANS 15:30-58
“I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” 1 Corinthians 15:31 (KJV).
The secret of victorious Christian living is dying daily to self and to the world. This is the reason Jesus says to take up the cross daily and follow him. Every true follower of Christ must, of necessity, take up the cross daily and follow Jesus. The cross is not a place of fun, it is a place of sacrifice, a place of self denial, a place of delayed gratification. It is a place of shame, pain and ridicule. Dying daily implies denying the flesh its gratification. It means refusing to follow or to satisfy the desires of the flesh and of the world. Dying to the cross means choosing God’s way.
Each time one denies the flesh its desires, death occurs. No to the world and no to the carnal desires is death. Prioritizing God’s will and God’s way over our personal and selfish inclination is death to self. Faced with such temptation at Gethsemane, Jesus said, “Father not my will but let your will be done,” that was death. There is a constant temptation to go our own and to do our own thing opposed to God’s will. It is expedient that one dies daily in other to live the Christ life.
Daily dying is the end of living for self.
PRAYER: Lord help me to die daily.
Rev. Vincent Diolu