O Self Die

“So likewise you, when you have done all those things that were commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.”

Luke 17:10

            “O self, die!” That was Amy Carmichael’s fervent prayer throughout. From the perspective of the world, she lived a life of sacrifice, self-denial and charity. But she and God knew what went on in the confines of her heart and the secrecy of her mind, and until every fiber of  body, mind and spirit was dead indeed to sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus her Lord, she would continue to pray that prayer: O self, die.

            Amy saved nearly 1000 children from the Hindu temples where priests stole their innocence and abused their bodies. Many times, she took great risk in doing so, bringing not only opposition from the Indian government but also from the occupying British. Endangering herself and all those for whom she cared for and worked with, her faith seemed great in the eyes of the world, but I believe that at the end of the day she would have said of herself, I am nothing more than an unworthy servant, only doing what I have been told to do. O self, die!

            The great apostle Paul struggled with the same concept. Paul, who endured tribulations, needs, distress, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, sleeplessness, fastings and shipwrecks, battling with the self?? O yes!

           

            “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. . .For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice . . . For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my min, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:15, 17-20, 22-24)

Translation: O self, die!

            But is there never a time for a little self gratification? A little comfort, a little indulgence, a little pleasure? No. When I belong to Jesus my delight is in His Word, my feasting is on the goodness of my Lord and my comfort comes from the God of all comfort. Self gratification is put to death. There is no room for a double throne. This is not a democracy; it is a dictatorship, a benevolent dictatorship but a dictatorship nonetheless.

            But what glory lies at the end of the road when we follow in the steps of our Savior. His death transcend into life, and life more abundantly than anything we’ve ever known before.

            “Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

O Self, Die!!

Application: I will memorize Acts 20:22-32 over the next 10 days.