"I'M DEAD!"

A common phrase you will most definitely hear me throwing around in text messages, face-time calls with my bestie, and even just in my day to day life..."LOL! I'M DEAD" This evening I was listening to David Platt - Radical (<< GO LISTEN NOW!! well, after you finish reading this post 😉)

Anyways, David Platt was talking about "dying to ourselves". The verse he was referring to, and one of my FAVORITE verses ever!! is Luke 9:23 'And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me".'

You may be asking yourself, "Deny himself? What does that even mean?! How can I 'deny myself'?

I'm gonna share one of my all time favorite quotes by, the man, the myth, the legend, George Müller. (Bet y'all thought it was about to be Charles Spurgeon haha, got 'em). My pastor shared this quote in one of his sermons a few weeks back and I couldn't not share with you guys!

"There was a day when I died. Died to George Müller, his opinions, preferences, tases and will; died to the world, its approval; died to the approval or blame even of brethren and friends." - George Müller

Can! I! Get! An! AMEN! How many of us need to die to our opinions, preferences, tastes, will, the world, approval, expectations??? If you didn't think "ME!" in your head or scream it out so loud thatcha phone glass shatters....well I don't really know what to say to that but uh...that's not a good place to be. I've shared this before, but as Christians. Christ-followers. Sons and daughters of God. Disciples. You name it! Christ becomes the foundation of our lives. Not a check-off box in our cute planners from Hobby Lobby or a fill in bubble in our bullet journal. Our faith. our LOVE for God. Our devotion to Christ. The emotions that stir within us when we think of the death of Christ and the mere fact that He DIED for us in! our! place! so that WE may be RECONCILED to God! THIS! THIS IS LOVE! This is why we die to ourselves. We realize I can't do this by myself. I can't do this by my own strength. There is only one. Excuse me, there is only One. We surrender our lives fully to God. Through His calling of our name and drawing us to Himself we are able to say "GOD! I NEED YOU! Every hour, every minute, every second. I. Need. You." We die to ourself. We take up our cross. And we follow Him with everything we have.