The Process of Losing Myself...

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 10:39 (ESV)

"The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." John 12:25 (NIV)

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:7-14 (NASB)

The process of losing yourself for Christ's sake can be a long and arduous process. I have been going through the process for more than thirty years and I am not finished yet. I guess we are never really finished until we are at home with the Lord. The point is that we must press on forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. We need to continue in the process of losing ourselves that we may gain Him.

When we come into this world we are extremely egocentric. We are focused on ourselves and our needs. As babies, that is okay because that is how babies get their basic needs met for food, sleep, cleanliness, and comfort. But at some point we are supposed to grow up, we are supposed to become less egocentric. We are supposed to learn how to share, empathize, and care about those around us. We are supposed to regard others as more important than ourselves even. "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;" Philippians 2:3 (NASB) This is where we fall down, where we get stuck. So many of us have never moved beyond the egocentricities of childhood.

Jim Eliot said, "He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." If we give up who we were to become who the Lord wants us to be, we are rich indeed. We gain more than we could ever lose. We gain the knowledge of Christ which means more than to know about Him. We come to the place where we know Him, we have a personal relationship with Him, and we live our lives for Him. We know Him in a personal way and He gives us salvation.

We also gain His righteousness. We go through life trying to be good, trying to be righteous and we always fall short. Many times our attempts at righteousness turn into self-righteousness. Until we admit the truth that we, by ourselves, are spiritually bankrupt, we can never understand that the righteousness we can have in Jesus is the only righteousness that is incorruptible. The sins that were to be put to our own accounts are instead put to Christ's account and it is reckoned to us as righteousness! Romans 4:22-25 says, "Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written, that 'It was reckoned to him,' but for our sakes also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification." And we discover that our sins have been put on Christ's account on the cross. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

Finally, we gain the fellowship of Christ. When we become Christians, it is not the end but only the beginning. We begin to be transformed into His image which is, again, incorruptible. We need to let the resurrection power go to work in our lives to change us, to help us lose ourselves and become like Him. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galations 2:20 (NASB)

Dear Lord, Thank you that in the process of losing myself I gain more than I could possibly imagine. Help me to give up who I was to become who You want me to be. Teach me to count it all loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing You...