Jesus, Please Save Me from Myself!

You saved me from myself- lyrics from a song I heard that stood out to me. We need Jesus to save us from ourselves don't we?


Self gets in the way of so much.


What's this mean-- Mat 16:24 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.


Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.


We understand what following someone means- to us it's not truly literal we don't have Jesus walking about to follow physically in that respect, we have to follow His teachings, His ways. But what about that denying self. These are Jesus' words. If ANY man will come after Him they must deny themselves. What are we to deny ourselves?


Strong's Lexicon: Deny - ap-ar-neh'-om-ahee - To deny utterly, that is, disown, abstain: - deny.


Disown, abstain self. We can insert lots and lots of *things*, we can say oh that means to deny ourselves alcohol, food, sex, friendship with the world, deny ourselves worldly pleasures but is that what it's saying? Did Jesus say that if any man will come after him they had to deny themselves things? Do you think it's implied? In the context of the reading Peter was rebuking Jesus after Jesus began to tell the disciples about what He was going to suffer soon. Peter couldn't fathom the things Jesus was saying would come to pass. He didn't want to believe that Jesus, the Messiah, would suffer. The Messiah was to come and save His people, to be exalted, full of power and greatness, not be hurt, ridiculed, and killed. Jesus told Peter this-- and it's a very STRONG counter rebuke.


Mat 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.


Peter was savoring the things that weren't of God, worldly things like glory, power, exaltation of the world; Peter wanted Jesus to come into His own to be famous and recognized by the world as the Son of God, the King of Kings. What was the response of Jesus? He called Him Satan! Could there be any stronger rebuke? He called one of His disciples Satan because he wasn't focused on God, and God's plan for men here and now on earth. He was focused on the world then and there and what it had to offer. Aren't we the same? Don't we pray to God to make our lives here and now simpler, easier, richer. We look at the lowest of the low on our earth today and how they live in deep poverty we can't imagine and we don't want to live anything like that and we think Jesus should keep us from being the lowest of the low and even Jesus said the poor would be with you always. That's fine isn't it? As long as we're not among the poor. Seriously. He told the rich young ruler what?


Mat 19:21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
Mat 19:22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.


Sell that thou hast and give to the poor- thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. The very idea of selling all that he had and giving the money to the poor was appalling to the man, why? Because he had GREAT POSSESSIONS. He wasn't being asked to give up something meager, but he was being asked to give up GREAT POSSESSIONS. He wanted to know what he needed to do to have eternal life and he was already following the commandments but he was doing so in the comfort of great possessions- those possession meant more to him than eternal life. Do you think it'd be the same if eternal life was a reality to Him? Seriously? It's possible isn't it? We believe in eternal life but we tell ourselves that we have to live for here and now. We gather our great possessions and they ARE great when we compare them to the poor and their possessions. We gather our great possessions and we comfort ourselves by saying God understands. When hardships come and our possessions become endangered we feel as if we've gained God's disfavor some how and we're being punished, he's allowing Satan to hurt us. Do we stop and think for a moment that maybe God is trying to strip away things in our lives that are meaningless in comparison to eternal life in Christ? To be poor, to be without a home, without the ability to pay the bills for our cars, our entertainment, our abiity to communicate through phone and internet, to have things taken away makes us want to cry in fear for our losses and we agonize over what we're going to do without the ability to have these things because we just can't imagine our lives destitute of them- we'd be failures, we'd have failed to live as we believe we need to live not to be filthy rich or successful but in our minds to just get by with a few comforts. It's a terrifying thought to be without our great possessions, we've found security in them. It's even more terrifying to imagine losing out on eternal life because we are so wrapped up in ourselves we can't even contemplate giving up anything, denying ourselves anything. We pat ourselves on the back and think of all the things we want and deny ourselves already and we say that's enough denying. We tell ourselves God doesn't REALLY want us to deny ourselves things, that's foolish cultish talk.


Christ tells us this--


Mat 16:24 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.


Deny himself- take up his cross- follow me.


What does it mean 'take up his cross'? Strong's has this to say--


A stake or post (as set upright), that is, (specifically) a pole or cross (as an instrument of capital punishment); figuratively exposure to death, that is, self denial; by implication the atonement of Christ: - cross.


Figuratively exposure to death- that is SELF DENIAL.


Mat 16:24 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.
Mat 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Mat 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mat 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.


As long as SELF rules us and our lives we are in danger. Those words from the song are so true....


You saved me from myself.


We need to be saved from ourselves. Self has to die and Christ has to live. Today if Christ asked you to sell all that you had and give it to the poor and follow Him, what would you tell Him? God help us, please help us, because we might just find ourselves with the young man in sorrow who couldn't fathom selling His great possessions not even for eternal life.


We need to take up our cross and even if we can't imagine giving up our possessions meager or otherwise, we need to take up the cross, denying ourselves- our selfish wants and desires, our selfish need to put our supposedly deserved needs before those of others because we work so hard, we do so much already. It's not easy to do away with self and only by the grace and mercy of Christ will we be able to do it at all. While Satan has our minds wrapped up in some sins of ours we are finding hard to give up he's keeping us caught up tight in the bindings of selfishness, of self-first, of self so much we think it's normal to consider our selfish needs first and foremost.


Please LORD, please! Save me from myself!


By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, please save us from ourselves.


Amen.