Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Matthew 16:24-25

Often, we can be captured by what Jesus did and said, that we can tend to overlook when He said certain things.   These words were communicated to the disciples as He was preparing them for the days that were approaching.  The days in which the ultimate sacrifice to fulfill His mission would be accomplished.   These were days of great contemplation for the “man” named Jesus.  As a man, the Bible said he faced the same challenges and temptations as we do, but did not give in to them. 

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

 
I can’t even imagine what could have been running through His natural mind as He purposed His heart and will to accomplish the mission for which He came.  So when I read these words in light of its timing, the impact of it is even greater.  Jesus said; if anyone desires to come after Him, let him deny himself.

In the original text, the Greek word means to: deny oneself utterly; to abstain; to disown one self.  The root words of which, means: to say farewell to and refuse.

Once we have said goodbye then we must make a continual decision to abstain from those things which we have renounced.  To abstain, also implies that there is a choice to do or to not do something.  That is what Jesus meant when He said, “and take up his cross.”  Taking up your cross is the daily consecration one makes to abstain from those things that keep us from our destiny in Christ.  

If we are to be a people who live out our mission and purpose, we have to make the ultimate decision to disown our selves.  That means we need to say good-bye to and refuse those things that steal our focus, rob our strength and justify our fears. When we do; Jesus said that in losing this way of life, they will find the Life they were searching for.