THURSDAY | Lent Series | Returning to The Heart of God - How to Die to Self Daily

Repentance turns us back to God. Fasting sharpens our focus. But discipleship requires something deeper — dying to self.

Jesus said in Luke 9:23 (KJV): “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Daily. Dying to self daily. Meaning it’s not a one-time altar moment where you holler and bawl and cry out to God and then as soon as you leave that moment, you return to your old hot-tempered, prideful, uncaring self. 

Dying to self daily is not a conference experience. Many of us know what that means - you go to a service with a guest from out of town, and you are so caught up in the message like youve never heard it before, and you literally fall out. You have an emotional surge. But then what?

I am here to remind us today that while that is good, because that may just be where God wants you to do what He wants to do, dying to self involves daily surrender. Because after that, life will still be life-ing. Yeah?!?

So we want to learn more today about how to deny ourselves.

and refuse to let our desires, pride, ego, and impulses sit on the throne. 

Dying to self, Family, means to let Christ govern our responses, our speech, our ambitions, and our decisions.

The cross in Jesus’ day was not symbolic jewelry. Many people go around wearing chains with big crosses on them, and yet when they open their mouths, where they find themselves, what they keep doing, nothing represents the cross.

The cross in Jesus’ day, Family, was an instrument of death. When He said “take up your cross,” His listeners understood that meant surrendering personal will.

Paul echoes this in Galatians 2:20 (KJV) when he said: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Crucified with Christ. Have we ever stopped to think about that? 

In the physical, it means literally being nailed to a cross, executed, put to death, and unable to free yourself. It means being restrained, surrendered, and no longer in control of your own movement or will.

In the spiritual, it means the old nature is no longer in charge. The bad things we used to do, we do them no more. And that would be more than a song. Amen?!

Dying to self, Family, shows up in practical ways:

It is choosing silence when your flesh wants to retaliate.It is choosing obedience when convenience says delay.It is choosing forgiveness when pride says hold the grudge.It is choosing prayer when distraction calls louder.

Romans 12:1 (KJV) says: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

A living sacrifice has a daily choice. Unlike a dead sacrifice, it can climb off the altar. That is why surrender must be renewed daily.

This is where it becomes real.

Dying to self is not dramatic. It is disciplined. It is saying no to what feeds the flesh and yes to what feeds the Spirit. Somebody needs to get that, because many times, even though we don’t say it, it’s all about what pleases us at any given time.

Galatians 5:24 (KJV) declares: “And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”

Crucified — not managed. Not negotiated. Crucified.

Yet this is not about self-destruction. It is about Christ-exaltation.

John the Baptist said in John 3:30 (KJV): “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

When self decreases, Christ increases.

Every day we will face the choice:Who leads — Christ or ego?Who speaks — Spirit or impulse?Who governs — obedience or emotion?

Dying to self, Family, is not losing self. It is finding our true life in God.

Jesus continues in Luke 9:24 (KJV): “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

The reality of the Kingdom is this: surrender produces life.

As we continue this Lenten series, “Returning to the Heart of God”, let’s understand this clearly: there is no resurrection power without crucifixion. There is no new life without daily surrender.

So today, let us ask ourselves: Where is self still ruling? Where is pride speaking louder than obedience? Where is comfort overriding conviction?

And then, let us deny ourselves. Take up our cross. And follow Jesus. Daily. Faithfully.

And as we do, we will discover what the Apostle Paul declared: it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

That is the heart returning to God. 

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