Denying Self and Trusting Christ

[DeerGlow]

How? I know we need to die to self but how do I work on that? And how can I trust Christ's forgiveness more? Sometimes I feel despair and like I'm cut off from God, like His forgiveness just isn't for me. How do I have hope? And obey, since the NT says a lot about one who obeys Christ?

 

[Evan Briggs]

I think we have to look at what does not Glorify God in our daily life.

Because the Word says to give your life over to Jesus and trust alone in Him. Our lives can consist of a lot of things, careers, homes, cars, money, addictions, things that we time into.

What are we putting in front of Him in our priority? Remember we can't serve God and mammon (riches). Mammon doesn't have to mean money, it can mean possessions, addictions of some sort, a career, what ever it is.

Is there anything in your life that you cannot glorify our Lord in?

Don't think you are cut off from Him, you are just in a season and the Lord is just teaching you something, or correcting you for something.

I will pray for you!

 

[Bluerose31]

How? I know we need to die to self but how do I work on that? And how can I trust Christ's forgiveness more? Sometimes I feel despair and like I'm cut off from God, like His forgiveness just isn't for me. How do I have hope? And obey, since the NT says a lot about one who obeys Christ?

Jesus loves you and forgives you, He just wants you to be yourself with Him.

 

[ByTheSpirit]

@DeerGlow it makes me happy to see you ask this! I can tell you this, you do not need to do anything. Jesus already did it all!

“In the same way, count (reckon, count, charge with; reason, decide, conclude; think, suppose) yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭6:11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Really the whole chapter of Romans 6 deals with the victory all believers have over sin. The key is your faith. Now I am not telling you to have more faith, nor am I saying you lack faith, I'm saying to merely apply your faith to the realm of the flesh. There are power in our words, so declare daily:

I am dead to my flesh and alive to God in Jesus.

In this way you will already be bearing up your cross & denying yourself.

Otherwise you will be using your flesh to try and crucify your flesh. Not going to happen and you'll only end up more frustrated in the end. So pray to God for help in understanding, then merely declare in faith that you are dead to sin and the flesh but alive to God in Jesus! He is still mighty to save

 

[faroukfarouk]

How? I know we need to die to self but how do I work on that? And how can I trust Christ's forgiveness more? Sometimes I feel despair and like I'm cut off from God, like His forgiveness just isn't for me. How do I have hope? And obey, since the NT says a lot about one who obeys Christ?

Philippians 2 is a great chapter by which to contemplate the Lord Jesus and His self-humbling obedience unto death of the Cross.

 

[WilliamBo]

How? I know we need to die to self but how do I work on that? And how can I trust Christ's forgiveness more? Sometimes I feel despair and like I'm cut off from God, like His forgiveness just isn't for me. How do I have hope? And obey, since the NT says a lot about one who obeys Christ?

For me [although I am not there yet], I have to be BROKEN in order to fully surrender to Christ... I would pray that God breaks you and your life so that you have no choice BUT to surrender to God until it happens

 

[Halbhh]

With real faith in Him, we need merely follow Him, dwelling in His words, and keeping His commandments, which requires we look to Him, which means to remain in His words, to read them and understand them and begin to do them. At times we may need to pray for help, I have many times over the years, and also the Lord's Prayer He gave us to pray is a way to ask for help. It's more clear instead of 'deny yourself' to be aiming at a goal, His way -- to follow Him. We are letting go of the less good worldly side and seeking following the more good, the wonderful. So we are letting go of sins by repenting and sometimes praying for help on them, and our main aid is how we remember Him as we take communion of Him, and are transformed over time by His words as we take them in and dwell in them and work to begin doing them, relying on Him as we do. He is the way, the truth, and the life. As we look to Him, we are facing the right way.

 

[Dave M18]

"Spiritual growth is directly related to biblical obedience" I herd Greg Locke say this the other day and thought it was a good

 

[Evan Briggs]

For me [although I am not there yet], I have to be BROKEN in order to fully surrender to Christ... I would pray that God breaks you and your life so that you have no choice BUT to surrender to God until it happens

I am praying for you as well. I am glad you understand this concept

 

[Evan Briggs]

With real faith in Him, we need merely follow Him, dwelling in His words, and keeping His commandments, which requires we look to Him, which means to remain in His words, to read them and understand them and begin to do them. At times we may need to pray for help, I have many times over the years, and also the Lord's Prayer He gave us to pray is a way to ask for help. It's more clear instead of 'deny yourself' to be aiming at a goal, His way -- to follow Him. We are letting go of the less good worldly side and seeking following the more good, the wonderful. So we are letting go of sins by repenting and sometimes praying for help on them, and our main aid is how we remember Him as we take communion of Him, and are transformed over time by His words as we take them in and dwell in them and work to begin doing them, relying on Him as we do. He is the way, the truth, and the life. As we look to Him, we are facing the right way.

Amen to this!

 

[WilliamBo]

Deerglow, God has to break your life I feel... homelessness, poverty, whatever it takes to realize that you can't make it without Him. This is what I'm going through now and it sucks but I feel like God is telling me its something that has to be done. Praying for you

 

[DeerGlow]

Deerglow, God has to break your life I feel... homelessness, poverty, whatever it takes to realize that you can't make it without Him. This is what I'm going through now and it sucks but I feel like God is telling me its something that has to be done. Praying for you

It's frightening, but thank you.

 

[Halbhh]

It's frightening, but thank you.

Well, another wording that is just as meaningful, and perhaps more clear to some, like me, is that it is often only when we hit rock bottom that we realize we must fully depend on God in the end. That often we need exactly that situation of needing to rely totally on Him to realize our more true relationship to Him. It helps us break out of our illusions or mistaken priorities. These kinds of crises happen to everyone in life, and then we can choose to rely on Him, and that's the wonderful choice that helps set us right.

 

[Francis Drake]

How? I know we need to die to self but how do I work on that? And how can I trust Christ's forgiveness more? Sometimes I feel despair and like I'm cut off from God, like His forgiveness just isn't for me. How do I have hope? And obey, since the NT says a lot about one who obeys Christ?

DeerGlow,
Don't be so downhearted. Forgiveness is a given fact if you would but accept it.

When I was a relatively new Christian 40 odd years ago, I really struggled. I wanted to be right with God, but many times per week fell into condemnation and unforgiveness for certain things I had done in the past.
I constantly pleaded with God to forgive me and constantly tried to get right.
Then it dawned on me that every time I pleaded with God to forgive me, I was in fact declaring my unbelief in what he had already given the first time I asked.
In fact the condemnation I felt was not from God, but from Satan reminding me of my past, a condemnation created by my failure to accept what Jesus had already done.

I made up my mind from that time forward to agree and thank God that I was already forgiven. Satan's taunting condemnation of unforgiveness immediately ceased. Any condemnation from that point on simply made me express thankfulness that I was an already forgiven child of my Father God.