Matthew 16:24-25 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. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Everywhere we look today, there’s some kind of “self-help” advice—books, podcasts, videos, websites, even world-famous speakers—all telling us how to feel better about ourselves. And yet, so many of us still wrestle with self-doubt, even as believers!
But let’s think about this for a second. Did Yeshua (Jesus) ever say, “Just feel good about yourself”? No, He actually told us to crucify ourselves!
If we go around hating ourselves and even feeling condemnation over our faults and sins, what we are really doing is focusing on our self! My wife said something really wise the other day: Self-consciousness is not God-consciousness. And that’s the truth. God doesn’t want us fixated on ourselves — He wants our eyes on Him!
When we lay down our flesh and surrender fully, it’s no longer us trying to live this life — it’s about Him living through us! And if our old self is crucified, there’s no self left to hate, no self left to condemn. That’s real freedom! We’re free to serve the Lord and let Him do amazing things through us.
So let’s stop looking in the mirror and start looking up—because the more we focus on Him, the more He shines through us!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Over the past week, the world has experienced some severe birth pangs. If you’ve been reading Worthy News, you’ve read the situation in Ukraine has intensifed with the Russians massing their troops along the border with the West condemning the referendum taking this weekend in Crimea. In Israel, scores of rockets were fired out of the Gaza Strip and rockets continue to be fired despite a "ceasefire". The Iranians continue to threaten the destruction of Israel as an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander stated, "Islam has given us this wish, capacity and power to destroy the Zionist regime so that our hands will remain on the trigger from 1,400km away for the day when such an incident (confrontation with Israel) takes place." Wars and rumors of wars embrace the headlines! The world is on the brink of going over the edge!
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