Death to Self As We Live.

 This life is truly just about dying because we are to die daily to self. 

As we mostly know, dying is not something that comes easy. So why would we ever expect our dying to self would be something easy to comprehend, easy to learn. To surrender self is to become selfless, and serving others is the only thing we can do. On our own, we cannot be selfless. Our Savior's life is something we have to examine closely. He led a life of dying to self. He lived to serve others in all things. 

Putting God and others before ourselves is a constant setting aside self. We rail against that thought. We do things to keep ourselves as comfortable as we possibly can- emotionally, mentally, physically. We don't like to be torn from our self-bubble of normalcy. We choose ourselves over others all the time in many little and big ways. Our fear of stepping outside of our safety zone keeping our life on an even keel is a very real thing. We go through dramatic changes as we are thrust out of our comfortable ways and into things unexpected. We feel the stress of it all eating away at our comfort bubble and we want to get back to that sweet comfort. We are forced into situations of constant choosing and we need to recognize if we are choosing self over others, over God. To hide from knowing this choice will not make it okay, it will keep us self-serving. We can delude ourselves, but not God, never God. 

Another danger is when we do things to receive self-soothing accolades, loving to hear our praises sung because it reaffirms we are doing good things, we are being self-less, and yet… anytime we take any praise upon ourselves for any good deed we may do, we are taking that praise falsely, selfishly. All glory belongs to God. Jesus gave ALL the glory to God for all that He did. He did NOTHING without the Father. Not a single miracle did He perform on His own, not one.  Not a single iota of glory did Jesus take to Himself so why, why do we insist on seeking the praise of others? Why do we feel crushed when our efforts are not deemed good enough to please those we are seeking to please. We feel that way because we are not supposed to be seeking to please ourselves through pleasing others. We are to seek to please God in all things. Jesus sought to please God in all things… ALL things. We are to do no less, through Him, through the Holy Spirit, through the Heavenly Father.