Surely self is the most virulent of enemies. Perhaps you do not agree and believe that we must have confidence and hope in self if we are to survive in this world. The Scripture, and therefore the Lord our God and Maker, sees things quite differently from us and instructs us to worship Him alone. This means we must lay self aside and do all for His service and glory. The two mindsets are not compatible and therefore causes conflict in our mind and soul.

“For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire.”

Galatians 5:17

We would imagine that our greatest enemy is Satan, since he is the greatest of the evil powers that we come up against and his temptations are hard to resist, but the Scripture tells us that he is a defeated foe.

“He forgave us all our trespasses, having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross! And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Colossians 2:13-15

Christ has died and overcome the domain of Satan and all those who shelter under the wings of the Saviour are safe from his insidious ways. The weakest saint can dispatch him with a quick reply. We tell him to leave when he lobs thoughts into our mind and tries to unsettle us. He is ultimately a coward and afraid of the power we possess and therefore will leave us. Not so self. Self is always seeking something and wanting things we don’t need. It must be coddled and consoled and is easily angered. Self wants to be on the throne of the heart and dictate all the activity and thoughts. We are taught in the Scripture to withstand self and deny its wicked inclinations.

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

Matthew 16:24-25

Self must be humbled and we do not like that at all. What about confidence – surely it is good to have confidence, but it must be in our Lord and not the risings of the flesh. The fleshly part of us that still lingers even after we come to the Lord for cleansing and must be denied. I find my heart rising up against this and the selfishness and covetousness is so hard to control. Self seems to be an ever-open door that is never satisfied. Self wants to gain all things and be comforted rather than to give and give away. Self wants the security of home and family and doesn’t listen to the pleadings of the Lord to follow Him and be blessed in our soul.

The soul always seems to come last in our life and we are easily satisfied with the physical realm. We fight against the call of Christ to give all to Him and take up our cross and follow. It is so easy to put anything and everything before our precious Lord Jesus and fail to fight the flesh which will certainly bring us into spiritual poverty. Without the death of self and the continual fight against it we remain spiritual babies and never grow up into Christ.

“… that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ…”

Ephesians 4:14-15

The way of the Lord is very different from our way. The wilfulness of our flesh will always kick against the Lord and we must grow up in Him and choose life rather than death. The carping of self will complain and gripe about hardship and will always seek the softer option. We find it so hard to make sacrifices, but if we should choose the narrow way we will find rich life! The Lord knows what is good for us and will lead us in all truth. The blessedness of following Him and knowing His presence in our life is of far greater value to the Christian than anything worked up in ourselves.

We start to change and start to experience the deeper things of God and find our life in the Spirit to be of greater value than feeding our flesh. We find a new liberty, a new generosity of attitude and a freedom to not have to chase the things of this life. We find eternity in our heart and the peace of heaven comes down. What a blessing we receive when self is finally put on the cross and we can walk our Christian life with the Lord. We get freedom from the wanting and are truly satisfied. We find the provisions of this life all we need and trust in the Lord for all the future requirements. We have funds to help others. We have energy to serve and resourcefulness to think of ways to reach out to others. We become less and less selfish and conceited and put others before ourselves.

“….make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.”

Philippians 2:2-4

This is the way of Christ who humbled himself more than all and became the suffering servant. We are not above Him and therefore must humble ourselves before the Lord and be obedient people of God.

“…all of you clothe yourselves with humility and subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.”

1 Peter 5:5-7

As we humble ourselves and say goodbye to self, we find a new and rich life with God. God will meet all our needs as we cast all our strife and burdens on Him and trust Him. Self will then become less and less as Jesus our Saviour becomes more and more. Our aim is to be like Him and for all of self to be denied. We will become glorious people, humble, contrite and obedient. We must want this and seek it in all our days that we will bring glory to our Father and Lord.

What a relief it is to let go of selfishness and pride and live God-centred lives! It releases us from the grip of temptation and sin and sets us free to be the people God wants us to be. Everything in us gets better. Our joy is full and our contentment is real.

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”

1 Timothy 6:6

As it turns out, God knows what is best for us and if we follow His holy Word we find our true destiny and great peace. We learn to reject self and become sensitive to the leadings of the Lord and we will then be obedient. This is the golden pathway of Christ. It is a narrow path but we travel with our dear Saviour and all other things lose their attraction. How great it is to be satisfied in Him and to experience His pleasure in us. This should be our highest goal and ultimate aim in our life. Maybe it is possible to live this life so close to our Lord that we barely notice the difference as we pass into eternity.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we don’t wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds…”

2 Corinthians 10:3-4

We walk our lives in our bodies, but we do not live to the fleshly mindset of our self or this world, but walk in the new life in God which is daily renewed. We have all the weapon we need in the holy Scriptures and have the power of the Spirit to overcome. Let us walk worthy lives to our Saviour and bring Him joy in our obedience.

“Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior, because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:13-16