This is a profound truth. Before we can achieve anything for God, we must be willing to die to self–if necessary, never to rise again.
I had to preach on this theme once. I worked long and hard on that message. I thought I had prepared a sermon that would be pretty impressive.
On the same day, another brother was to speak as well. He had 20 minutes and so did I. When his 20 minutes was ended, he kept right on going. He continued till 30 minutes were up and finally used up all of my time as well.
Initially, as my allowable time was whittled away, in my mind I began to trim my message. Cut this. Cut that. Finally, there wasn’t much left. My loyal wife leaned over and whispered to me, ‘Take your 20 minutes anyway! It’s not your fault.’
But then I began to see the funny side of what was happening. Here was I anxious to preach my wonderful message on the theme of dying to self and the Lord was giving me a first-hand opportunity to put it into practice right there and then! I spoke for five minutes and sat down. I didn’t even use the sermon.
To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.