Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” – Matthew 16:24
When Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,” He was calling His disciples to a radical shift of identity. The word deny in the original language means to disown, disregard, or refuse to recognize the former source of authority. Jesus was saying that following Him requires a decisive break from the old life—our self‑will, our independence, our insistence on being in control. When we deny ourselves, we stop recognizing our old nature as the governing force of our lives and begin recognizing Christ as our true Lord. The old has passed away; the new has come.
Self‑will is one of the hardest things to surrender because it feels like the last piece of ourselves we truly own. Yet it is the very thing God continually works to break in us. He does not destroy our personality—He redeems it. But He does confront our independence, because independence keeps us from intimacy. Throughout Scripture, God uses surrendered people, not self‑directed ones. When we finally yield our will, God begins to shape our lives with purpose, power, and fruitfulness. What He asks us to lay down is always far less than what He intends to give.
This call to deny ourselves is not punishment—it is invitation. Jesus knows that self‑rule leads to exhaustion, emptiness, and spiritual stagnation. But surrender leads to freedom, clarity, and usefulness. The more we cling to our independence, the less room we give God to lead us into the life He designed. The moment we release our grip, His work begins.
What about you today? Is surrendering your independence difficult? Are you holding tightly to your right to yourself—your plans, your preferences, your timing? One writer said, “God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself, He cannot.” What part of your independence is keeping God from leading you into new ventures with Him? Lay it down today. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. In surrender, you will finally find the life you were meant to live.
“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves.” — A.W. Tozer
