He went on, "It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the religious leaders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and on the third day be raised up alive."
Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat—I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? --Luke 9:22-23 (The Message)
What is self-sacrifice? How do we find our real selves? Do we do it by constant introspection and self-analysis? Do we take our spiritual pulse constantly? At the end of the day do we spend time going over the day to see if we’ve sacrificed enough? NO!
To lose ourselves in Christ – to sacrifice our self – we must look to Him more. We must think about Him more. We must remember His Spirit is with us at all times – alive within us. We must spend less time worrying about ourselves and our performance and spend more time loving and knowing Him!
Have you ever considered how your temperament plays into your spiritual life? I’ve always known this to be true but it’s been something I’ve been wrestling with and understanding more in recent days since I’ve been dealing with our Ministers in Training on the district. We’ve used the book, Wired that Way, to help them understand their basic temperament type – Melancholy, Phlegmatic, Sanguine, Choleric. One of the best things about this book is how it deals with your temperament and your spiritual growth.
These are my own generalities…
The Melancholy spends countless hours worrying about and striving for perfection in every area of their life including their spirituality and often feeling they don’t measure up. The Sanguine spends countless hours having fun and not spending much time on anything too important and believes everyone, including God, loves them. The Choleric is busy, busy, busy, working, working, working – not much time is spent slowing down and listening – in fact they already know what’s right and their doing it! The Phlegmatic is quietly resting– no agenda, no worries, calmly strolling on through life – what’s everyone getting so stirred up about?
People, the melancholies need to let up on themselves – forget themselves and their performance – let Jesus love you! The Sanguines need to stop talking and listen to the voice of their Heavenly Father – listen with an open heart and mind. Cholerics, you must slow down enough to experience the Presence of Jesus – He doesn’t need your busyness and works – He wants you! Phlegmatics, you might need to make sure that calm stroll is taking you in the right direction - put some feet to your faith.
In other words, it’s important to know who we are and then let it go and spend our time knowing Christ. Self-help is no help at all. Focusing on me won’t work either. I must focus on Him! I must let His Spirit care for me. This is true self-sacrifice.
“Father, Your Spirit is with us – You have created us the way we are. We truly want to be recreated in You – find our real selves in You! Amen”
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