Deny Myself

It's crazy how fast these three weeks at CIY are flying by. Sunday afternoon we finally made it to the top of the mountain:success! All the CIY staff and camp teams had a cookout =lots of fun. We started a new week and it's been really great already. Even though we have to do the same tedious tasks and listen to a lot of the same messages, I learn something new each time. Today Mark Moore spoke. He minded us of the broken world that we live in and how sin has become a norm. He challenged us to do something about it. We need to be available to God so that he can speak to us and work through us. In a video we watched yesterday, we were asked, "Whose kingdom are you building? Yours or God's?" How much time do we waste striving to meet our own needs and desires? Has that ever got us anywhere? The good news is that God wants us right where we are at. It doesn't matter what I've done in my past. I don't have to fix myself before I can stand before God. God is big enough for the fear and doubt that I have. Luke 9:23 says, "If anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it". I have to deny myself. It sounds like such a simple task right? Not exactly. The world we live in has trained us that pleasing ourselves is the most important thing. But I'm ready to be done with that life. I am ready to let go for something bigger, something better. I want to take the risk of giving myself up. I want my fear to dissolve so that it doesn't ruin my passion. I am worth it. I am wanted by Jesus Christ, and in Him I have a new purpose. What in this world could possibly matter more than following and serving him with all that I am? He is the only life worth living.
Ephesians 2:8 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."