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]For several years now, I’ve been focusing on the Kingdom of God, a central theme of Yeshua’s preaching [Luke 4:43], and will be offering a series of devotions on this topic with particular emphasis on our present season, which I believe portends the birthing of this Kingdom. A study of the gestation process from conception to birth yields insight as a natural parallel into the historical process we’re witnessing and taking part in. This theme will be developed in the coming days.
For a season, I worked in Washington, D.C., for one of America’s largest Christian political organizations. Sometimes I saw how politics could get ugly and, more often than not, how it changed people — not for the better…but usually for the worse!
One of the sacrifices mentioned in the Tenach (Old Testament) is mentioned as a Peace sacrifice or sometimes translated as the Thanksgiving sacrifice. It is known as the ‘shalem’ sacrifice. The root behind this word is the word ‘shalom’ whereby we get the word, peace.
From the beginning of Genesis (Genesis 4:4) to the end of the Bible (Revelation 22:3), there is a common theme — the Lamb! In Revelation 6 we read about the Lamb who sits in the midst of the throne — worshiped by all of heaven because the Lamb was worthy to take the book and open the seals therein. The most harmless of creatures — the object of sacrifice, becomes the authority of heaven. Isn’t it interesting that the focal point of heaven is a Lamb?
Throughout the United States today, everyone will be celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence — a document through which leaders of the colonies in the New World broke free from the King of England.
Is that a trend or something? I don’t know what it is but I’ve heard that phrase said quite a bit. We were even walking down the Wal-Mart isle to pick up a few things and my wife showed me a T-shirt with “I have issues” written across the front! I guess the world is coming to the sad reality that we really do have some issues.
So often in ministry, the Lord deals with my own spirit, saying – “You need to step back and get refocused!” And we all know how hard it is at times when we get so busy with the normal every day stresses of life tugging at our limited time.