Dying To Self

 ​I was speaking to someone last week about how I feel like I am losing some parts of myself and how difficult and somewhat melancholy I am finding the process.  I spoke about how the longer you are a Christian the more and more you strive, and are desirous, to develop the characteristics and mannerisms of Christ.  You desire that development because not only are you so very thankful for how and the many ways that God has demonstrated His love and concern for you; but also because you love Him and simply want to be like Him.

As your Christian characteristics grow, there are parts of your old self that die away.  While I celebrate this growth, I have noticed some amount, fleeting though it may be, of sadness at the loss.  At first I tried to negate the feeling, but have come to realize that it is okay to acknowledge them and to understand that death brings some form of emotions.  I think about so many things in nature that demonstrate the need to leave the old behind and celebrate the new.  The most known would be the movement of the caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly.

In order to fully carry out my Christian purpose, I have to continue to grow more Christ-like and to allow those parts of me that inhibit or impede this growth to die off.  While I experience brief sadness over the loss of some part of myself, I rejoice that the death brings me closer to Christ. I am reminded of two scriptures in particular:

Colossians 3:3 – “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

II Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Blessings - Janice

​Glory To God For All That He Has Done