Denying ourselves

​And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:23-24, ESV)

The new nature which God implants in his people is directly the opposite of the old one. As the old nature comes of Satan, being defiled and depraved by the fall, so the new nature comes direct from heaven, pure and without spot. As the old nature is sin, is essentially sin, so the new nature is essentially grace—it is a living and incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever, a seed which cannot sin, because it is born of God. When these two come into conflict, it is as fire and water meet—either the one or the other must die. 

Now the old nature was here before the new nature; it is like a tree well rooted—it has been there twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty years, according to the date of conversion, and it is not easily torn up by its roots. Even when grace comes into the heart and makes sin to fall, the stump is left, and there is enough vitality in that old stump still to breed the pain of old experiences and negative messaging that we have endured. Charles Spurgeon

Every day we will have to subdue the flesh anew.

GiGi❤️