“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24
If you read my previous post, you saw from these words of Jesus that a necessary death needs to take place in each of us. It is the death of the false self or that aspect of our soul which reflects our old, fallen nature. That death must take place if we are to experience all of the life God has for us.
Hopefully, as you thought about this, you found yourself open to the idea. There are aspects of your old nature that still haunt you. They need to die. You agree – at least theoretically. But when you start looking at some of the specific things that need to die, it can be quite challenging. This is where we discover just how much of the life of God we really want.
I would like to suggest ten aspects of the false self that need to die within the souls of many of us who want to follow Christ. As you read the list, pause after each item. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you as to whether or not this might be something that needs to be rooted out of your life.
- the need to get your way
- the need to control people or relationships including your relationship with God
- the need for approval from others
- the need to blame others in order to deflect attention from your own weaknesses
- the need to define yourself and others based on externals
- the need to present an inauthentic self to others
- the need to be right even if it means being hurtful or disrespectful to others who might differ with you
- the need to have everything now – a lack of patience
- the need to look spiritually superior
- the need to place yourself in the center of importance
Of course, there are many other ways in which the false self is expressed. These are just ten of them. But I believe they are representative of some of the specific things that need to die within all Christ-followers. As you continue to reflect on these matters, it is important to recognize that we need to be concerned for more than just the outward actions of the false self. We primarily need to be concerned about the hidden, entrenched patterns or habits that we maintain which give rise to the outward actions.
So what need to die in your life? You’ll need to spend some unhurried time with God to get to the bottom of this. But it will be time well spent. For as we have noted, there is a necessary death that needs to take place within each of us.