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Victory Over Self

Jesus was very clear on what one must do to not only follow Him, but to also be His Disciple. Luke 9:23, “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

The first critical step in discipleship is to get “self” out of the way. We must die to self. Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

This dying process is both a decision and life-long process (journey). This does not mean that when we “die to self” we become unproductive, inactive or unresponsive, nor do we feel ourselves to be dead to the world.

Dying to self means that the things of the old life (before becoming a Christian) are put to death, most especially the sinful ways and lifestyles we once engaged in. We become transformed by replacing our past lifestyle with godly things.

We find a good example of how to gain victory over “self” in the Old Testament. Here we find King Josiah and how he set the course for such a victory. 2 Chronicles 34:31, “The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the Lord’s presence. He pledged to obey the Lord by keeping all his commands, laws, and decrees with all his heart and soul. He promised to obey all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll.”

What are the lessons from King Josiah? What can we adapt to our lives? Here are a few examples from his renewed covenant made in the Lord’s presence:

1.    Josiah humbled himself and remained teachable. He made it his ambition to please and seek after God. He distanced himself from what could corrupt him.

2.    He left the past behind and refused to bring them forward to effect his life in a negative way. Barriers and obstacles were removed so they would not impede his ability to please God. He took drastic measures and swept the country completely clean of idols.

3.    He counted the cost and paid it! Obtaining victory always costs us something. We realize what we need to do and we do it. We understand what it takes and refuse to make excuses. Following Jesus is worth it no matter the personal cost to us. Josiah went ahead and “did it”…he repaired the Temple and reinstated the celebration of Passover.

4.    Josiah recognized the key to victory and made that his passion. What was that? Repentance. He returned back to God and got “self” out of the way.

5.    He accepted the sacrifice of commitment to successfully influence others. Commitment is a choice. You must want to be victorious. We must understand that others are watching and looking to us. We can inspire others to be faithful despite their past history of evil behavior and defeat.

There is another passage from Scripture that can help us adapt this same heart-attitude of Josiah which comes from Psalm 15:

Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?

Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?

Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,

speaking the truth from sincere hearts.

Those who refuse to gossip

or harm their neighbors

or speak evil of their friends.

Those who despise flagrant sinners,

and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,

and keep their promises even when it hurts.

Those who lend money without charging interest,

and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.

Such people will stand firm forever.

In our struggle to fight our sinful nature and to strive for “victory over self,” we can hear from Psalm 15, these timely nuggets of truth of things we can do:

-       Maintain integrity

-       Master your words by speaking truth and avoiding gossip and foul speech

-       Commit to serving other by doing no harm and seeing to their best interests

-       Never turn a blind-eye to evil, but boldly speak again wrong and injustice

-       Lift others up by supporting and encouraging those who also walk in truth

-       Maintain your loyalty and keep your word even at personal cost

-       Earn your way, work hard, and strive for your goals. Never be greedy for quick gain and may we never gain anything at the expense of others.

-       Stay active and stable by maintaining your spiritual, mental, and physical health.

Let us continue to stay mindful of needing to keep “self” in check and in proper perspective. We need to learn and maintain a healthy and scriptural understanding of who we are and whose we are!

May it be our daily goal to live in fulfilling the two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:36-39) to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind while loving our neighbor as ourselves. It really is possible to have victory over self!

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