“If any man will come after Me, let him deny
himself…”
Matthew 16:24
When you are forgotten, or
neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don’t sting and hurt with the
insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to
suffer for Christ,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF.
When your good is evil spoken of, when your wished are crossed, your
advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise
in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving
silence,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF.
When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any
irregularity, and unpunctuality, or any annoyance; when you can stand face to
face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility…enduring it as
Christ Jesus endured it,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF.
When you no longer care to hear yourself in conversation, or to record
your own works, or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be
unknown,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF.
When you see your brother prosper and have his needs met, and
can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy nor question God,
while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstance,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF.
When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature
than yourself, and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no
rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF.
---Author Unknown
“Except the LORD build the house,
they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman
waketh but in vain.”
Psalm
127:1