The following excerpt was written by Stacy McDonald and taken from Your Sacred Calling.  Link to entire article below.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

Matthew 16:24-25

God’s ways are not our ways (Is. 55:8); so, sometimes we have a hard time harmonizing biblical truths with day to day living. Love is a good example. While Christ’s love is pure, endless, and sacrificial, our love tends to be self serving, limited, and conditional. Godly love is foreign to our carnal minds. That’s why we need to walk in the Spirit (Gal.5:16-17) for it to work.

Denying ourselves. Preferring others. Dying to self. Sounds dour and grim, doesn’t it? But we have it backwards! Our hedonistic culture feeds our flesh by subtly promoting the idea that getting what we want is a noble goal. We’re left with thoughts like, “What will I get out of it?” “I deserve more!” “I’m being ripped off!” “I need to do this for me.” These are common attitudes of the world (1 Cor. 3:3). But Christians are supposed to live like Christ—we’re supposed to walk in the Truth. And the truth is that without Christ all any of us deserve is hell (John 3:18). I need to remember that. If the King of kings suffered a humiliating death on a cross for the likes of me, how can I dare live like I “deserve better?”

{***Read the rest of this insightful and convicting post over at Your Sacred Calling.***}