.. As you go through your day, consciously remind yourself of your submission to Christ in your actions and thoughts. Reflect on a time of true self-denial for the sake of Christ.

Self-Denial

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

There are few people who fail more spectacularly than in their efforts at self-denial. Very few seem to have the slightest idea of what it is. One does not eat red meat on Fridays but eats fish instead and thinks he or she has denied himself in a serious way. Another gives up something small for forty days in Lent and feels like he or she has accomplished something great. Others make themselves miserable in various ways: inflicting pain or making useless and uncalled-for sacrifices as if God is pleased when they suffer. These things are not self-denial. There is no merit or virtue in giving up anything, suffering any loss or pain, or making any sacrifice merely for its own sake.

True self-denial is renouncing yourself and the yielding your whole life to the will of Christ. It is submitting yourself to Christ and acknowledging His reign over every aspect of one's life. It is always living not to please ourselves, not to advance our own personal interests, but to please our Lord and do His work. It is denying ourselves of anything that is sinful in His sight. It is joyfully making any sacrifice that our dedication to Him requires. It is giving up of pleasure or comfort for the good of others. The essential thing is that self gives way altogether to Christ as the focus of one's life.

Nothing which is done merely as self-denial is true self-denial. True self-denial, like all other traits of Christ-likeness, is unconscious of itself and is not worried about glory. We deny ourselves when we follow Christ with joy and gladness, through cost and danger and suffering, wherever He leads.