Dying to Self

Not a verse today, but an excerpt from a book Dawn of Liberty by Michael Phillips (excellent series called the Secret of the Rose).

 

“What about my yoke is easy and my burden light?”

“After we’ve utterly relinquished self, that is true.  But as long as we continue to try to hold on to a piece of our own independence, we’re going to be in for a pretty rough time of it.”

“What do you mean, relinquish self? Doesn’t God want us to be ourselves?  Didn’t he give us an individuality?”

“Yes and no. If by individuality you mean your uniqueness, your personality and temperament, and all the gifts and attributes that god put into you in order that you might reflect his divine nature, then there is nothing he desires so much as that we emerge in that individuality and personhood.  But I use the word self differently.”

“What do you mean by it, then?”

“That part of us that is motivated only by self-interest.  Call it independence if you like – they’re the same thing.  The self that resides down inside each one of us is dead set against God’s interests.  Independence  is its own god.  That’s the self that has to be relinquished.  When the self is denied decision-making power and control, then the true individuality that God gave us is able to emerge -  but not before.  In other words, I would say that no, God does not want us to be ourselves, at least not in the way we mean it.  He wants to kill the self, not give it a comfortable home in which to go its own independent way.  Only after independence is yielded will individuality truly emerge.”

 

More tomorrow or Monday!