After yesterday’s sermon on denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Jesus, I was thinking about how this concept related to my marriage/family life. As a father and husband, I need to be seeking to encourage radical Christ following in the lives of my wife and child. John Piper calls this building God-esteem not self-esteem into them. In Paul Tripp’s latest book, A Quest For More, he gets to the issue of kingdom allegiance. He summarizes the call of denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Jesus as a simple call: YOU MUST DIE.
Deny Yourself: death to the priority of self
Take Up Your Cross: death to my pursuit of my life
Follow Me: death to my pursuit of my plan
Tripp goes on to ask these questions…
Are you living as his disciple in this way? Are you following his example? Only as we die to the glory of our claim on our own lives will we begin to experience the transcendent glories of living for the Lord. Only when we are willing to the do the unthinkable (preside over our own deaths) does the wonderful (the transcendence for which we were created) become our possession.
Later on in this Tripp says, “To jealously hold on to my dream of what I want to accomplish, experience and enjoy is to guarantee that I will never ever experience true life.” We want that life that is found only in God.
Therefore, as leaders in our homes (or as wives or children seeking to follow Christ), let’s get ride of the selfish things that surround us and inspire God esteem in our own hearts and in the hearts of those we love.