The biggest thing I’m gaining this year is learning the value of loss.

Loss of self.

You see, for the past few years I’ve sensed that The Lord is teaching me an important lesson about ‘death.’ Death in the spiritual sense, that is. Everywhere I look in Scripture, it appears that the key to life in Jesus requires & involves death to our old selves. Over & over, the Living Word proclaims that death is the way to life.

& the freest we will live is when we surrender our self to the Cross & let it hang there, being buried with Christ.

For then, resurrection comes.

I’m currently sitting on an Albanian terrace that faces directly towards a Cross on a hill. I’m always trying to find creative spots to get alone with The Lord (Race life makes it difficult sometimes haha;) but I was excited to find a little corner on a back porch of the house we’re currently staying at. And in a moment when God was impressing this truth on me of ‘death to life,’ I looked up & noticed that the infamous ‘Cross on a hill’ (a popular icon in this city) is directly in my viewpoint. It was like The Lord saying, ‘makenzie, you need to position yourself right under the Cross. keep your eyes there & remember what my work on the Cross means.’ Jesus died so we didn’t have to, His death freeing us from a life of separation from God. He died to rise again & prove His power in the  resurrection. He died for life.

And as we follow Jesus, the daily journey with Him is a death to self. A willful surrender of me. So that I can be filled with only Him.

I’m continually learning what it means to give up my own will & surrender completely to His. This idea of ‘self-emptying’ is a continual theme in Scripture, most embodied by Jesus Himself.

“Have this mind which is yours in Christ Jesus… Who emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant.” -Phil. 2:1-8

 

Everything in Scripture points to the idea that we ought to walk as He walked, and He walked in humility. Humility is so opposite of our fleshly nature (Galatians 5:16-18) and goes against the natural ‘only thinking of myself’ mindset. But when we have given our lives to Jesus, we trade in our ‘old man’ for the ‘new man’ in Christ (Ephesians 4:20-24) and thus die to our flesh, as we receive new life. The encouraging thing about this is is that though death to self is a painful process, it is not a burden or cruel act of God. When we simply surrender our lives, hearts, & wills to the purposes of God, He frees us to live the new life. Dying to our old self & ways is actually the most freeing and joyful way to live.

When we are emptied of us, we can be filled with Him.

Jesus is our primary example for this ‘death=life’ thing. He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a Servant and laid His life down for the cause of God’s Kingdom & people. He died a painful death so that He could beat death & offer everlasting life to all who would place their faith in Him. How thankful I am for a Savior who modeled the beauty of life after death.

I will never forget those moments sitting on that Albanian terrace with the Cross in view, myself directly positioned under it. For it was there that God reminded me of how f r e e we are. Jesus did all the work & endured all the pain so that we could receive His forgiveness & life. When we choose to follow Jesus, we are signing up for death- but this death leads to L I F E.