Thursday Writing...5/2/19..."Dying to Self"

Good Morning,

The theme for today's writing is that we must die to self in order to best serve God. Bre wrote, "Our lives need to be an example of Jesus’s life and love for others. That means we need to be willing to put others first and even lay down our lives for them."

We would well to choose to serve God by our lives.
Have a blessed day,

Bre Miller

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Today's Devotional 

"Dying to Self" 
Written by
Bre Miller

"Then Jesus told His disciples, 

'If anyone would come after Me,

let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me, 

For whoever would save his life will lose it, 

but whoever looses his life for My sake will find it.'" 

Matthew 16:24-26

ESV

Material Blessings

In this day and age, very popular thinking is that we need to sake after blessings. This is Biblical, (1 Chronicles 4:9-10...the request of Jabez to God for blessings and an enlarged border), however, we see blessings as getting a new car, making a lot of money, getting your dream job, etc. We see blessings as being healed from all of our ailments and having everything go our way. The reality is, God wants to bless us with what we need to serve Him and build The Kingdom. He wants to bless us with spiritual gifts and situations where we can lead people to Christ. He doesn’t want us to to always be living cushy, comfortable lives. He actually wants us to die to our flesh and as seen above, take up “our cross” and follow Jesus.

Spiritual Blessings

“I have been crucified with Christ. 

It is no longer I who live, 

but Christ who lives in me. 

And the life I now live in the flesh

 I live by faith in the Son of God, 

who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20 

ESV

This means that our lives need to be an example of Jesus’s life and love for others. That means we need to be willing to put others first and even lay down our lives for them.

Another example of focusing on how we can serve God, instead of how he can serve us, is when we worship. Miraculous things do happen in church services, during worship and God’s presence can definitely be felt, but our worship and adoration of Him should be what we seek after. Its not about how we feel when we worship, its all about him. God doesn’t owe us anything. He died for us and is letting us into his family, when we are garbage compared to him. He deserves us our praise and we don’t deserve anything. We owe Him all.

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Nothing Else 

Sung by 

Cody Carnes

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Use your spiritual gifts to 

find joy in serving God.

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Prayers are lifted up daily for you by the Devotional Writers and the Monthly Writing Staff of Women's Focus Ministries

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