Dying To Love Him

Our American culture is driven by self-focused interests and the preserving of its entitlements and rights. But Jesus says in John 12:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (NASB).

Today the Lord holds out an invitation to abundant life but only if we are willing to die.

The choice is ours.

We can die willingly to a self constructed life and embrace His own. Or we can pursue self-fulfillment only to lose our lives in the end - forever separated from His life (verse 25).

Beloved, when we love our relationships more than God or we hold those things higher than Him then we are still very much alive to a self directed life. God is not saying to hate or destroy relationships in some misguided religious fervor. He wants us to love Him in greater measure. It means dying to a self created life where I define how much I want to love Him over the people and things in my life.

Perhaps the most simple and surest way to die is present your members as a living sacrifice. Romans 12:1 says "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship" (NIV).

When we are willing to lay down our desires or fleshly pursuits (no matter noble or good it may seem) we will experience a great infusion of His strength and life. Keep it mind the key words in this verse - a living sacrifice - we bring down the knife as it were on the altar of self mortification - to find in the end more of His life imparted to us. God will provide for us as He did for Abraham who was willing to obey to the point of laying down his promised son.

And that is what makes dying to self so difficult. Can we trust God to make provision rather than take matters in our hands? Can we let Him speak to our troubled emotions instead of returning to those sinful places for relief that only further death? And do we believe He can quicken us in our graves to bring us out like Lazarus - a new man and woman fully alive in Christ?

After the flood, Noah made an altar to the Lord. It says the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and promised never to destroy the entire earth (Genesis 8:21). How much more beloved when we offer Him spiritual sacrifices will He do for us at the scent of a life that ceases to exist except for Him? Paul speaks of such a life that gives off an aroma of death that attracts those who are perishing (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).

Pray then beloved as Elijah to send the fire upon the altars of our lives (1 Kings 18:38). Let the flames consume the fat of self indulgences! Allow the heat to lick up the water and consume the wood and crack the stones of an indifferent heart! All that will remain is the life sanctified by His Spirit.

Dying to love Him is more attractive to the perishing than living without Him.