Self-Focused or Christ-Focused?

 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.

Albert Barnes Commentary-

'Let him, deny himself - That is, let him surrender to God his will, his affections, his body, and his soul. Let him not seek his own happiness as the supreme object, but be willing to renounce all, and lay down his life also, if required.'

Deny YOURSELF.

SURRENDER YOURSELF to GOD.

Give God your WILL.

Give God your AFFECTIONS.

Give God ALL of yourself- hold NOTHING back from God!

SEEK to live for God in ALL things over and above any thought of SELF.

God in ALL THINGS OF OUR LIVES, OUR ENTIRE LIVES, LEAVE NO PART OF OUR LIVES OUT!

Focusing upon ourselves seems inevitable all the time, right? When we do this self-focusing we recognize our state of existence and how we are feeling at any given moment of self-assessment. Are we content- note I didn't say happy, because most of us have already figured out happiness is a fleeting state of being while being content is more of a constant. If we feel even slightly off from the contented constant, the accepted constant of our being, then we determine we are possibly sad, mad, anxious, pained, disturbed, distressed, any number of other states of being. We label this as something we'd rather not be experiencing, we want to return to our accepted constant state of determined contentment (my idea of contentment will not be the same as yours, no two people have the exact same expectation of what gives them their personal state of contentment).  We do this sort of self-evaluation all the time, unendingly throughout our lives, each day. Our self-focus demands this even on a subconscious level. However, we can be particularly conscious of our self-evaluation every single time something disrupts our desired contentment. Our accepted mental, emotional being. Even amidst severe chronic conditions- we have an accepted state of being. A normal for ourselves. Each time we recognize a disruption to our state of being we are focused primarily on self to the exclusion of most other things.  We have these self-determined negative feelings and we do not like them, or want them. We believe whatever has caused these negativities is infringing upon our right to self-contentment. We want the cause to change so we can return to our contented acceptance. Sometimes the cause is within our ability to alter, other times it is not. If we can't get rid of the cause for our self-distress we made a call to either resume our contented state in spite of the distress it causes, or to allow ourselves to spiral deeper into an undesired state of being. 

SELF ABSORPTION. We are obsessed with our SELF and our state of contentment.                                            

As we begin each day we do so with an expectation of what the day's events will be, all the while knowing that more often than not, our expectations are not going to be fully met. Seldom is the day, for many people, perfectly predictable. Note, I said 'for many people', there are those who live their lives under a strict monotony of expectations with rare interruptions to their even-keeled lives.  As the day progresses and we immerse ourselves in our expected tasks- deviations may start to creep in, unexpected happenstances that take us from our expected tasks. Our reactions to these interruptions are most often self-focused inner distress, anywhere from minor to major turmoil. We had expectations- those expectations were not met. Self determines that this must be a cause for distress. We don't want distress, so we label the interruption as being negative. 

We seldom embrace the interruptions with positivity, as opportunities to live Christ's peace in all things. We don't take the interruptions of our expectations as a chance to deny self when we need to do just that! 

Often, even as we extend ourselves towards focusing on others we will find various self-focused thoughts creeping in. Our feet may be aching, our backs paining us, mentally we may feel drained, emotionally we recognize that we are spent, having given so much of ourselves to others and self demands we give ourselves at the very least a mental pat on the back for our sacrifices. 

Self-focused or…

Christ-focused.

Christ-focused means NOT being obsessed with self-focus.

Christ-focused means constantly questioning ourselves to determine what our focus is in the moment.  

When we feel the first twinge of distress because something has disturbed our accepted contentment we need to quickly ask ourselves HOW we can live Christ in this moment. In living Christ we switch our focus to how Christ would desire us to handle the situation. Remember, Christ is all about turning the other cheek, of divesting ourselves of our very garments to another in need, to place ourselves upon a cross so that others may live. You read that right. DENY SELF- TAKE UP OUR CROSS-  recognize the need to sacrifice self-contentment that exists from a core of self-centeredness and not God-centeredness. 

Prayer is a constant must in our lives. Entreating the Holy Spirit to work in us constantly. Recognizing that the power to detect self in need of denying stems from God, and the power to deny comes from God, our need of God's power working is a constant, forever and always!

All by the grace and mercy or our LORD and SAVIOR, now and forever!!!!!!! Amen!