The real balance of life

In Leviticus chapter 23 God is describing the festivals, specifically the Day of atonement. What it says in verse 32 is “This will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and on that day you must deny yourselves”. Now, the first thing I want to share is we are not under the law, and Paul reiterates this in Galatians 3:24 when he explains to the church in Galatia when he says “The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian”. So for the purposes of this note I want to speak to the process of denying yourself.

For the day of the sabbath God wanted the people to rest, and to do this He says you need to deny yourself. You need to deny the urges that will come up and will distract you from this mandate. Jesus reciprocates this in the Gospel of Luke where He says in chapter 9 verse 23 “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me”. To follow the plans of God you will need to understand how to deny yourself. What are the things you need to deny? They are different for each one of us, but can be summed up with the fleshly desires that separate us from God.

Initially one would think this is a negative connotation, but it is quite the contrary You see as God’s children, He wants the best for you and He knows that we need to deny ourselves to accomplish this. Those of you that have been around kids know that they are not always thinking of their well being when they make decisions. We are no different and we need to trust in the Word of God as it guides us. Often we cannot see the importance or possibly know the the growth that will come from obedience to the commandments of the Lord. I encourage you to daily read God’s Word, deny the flesh and the distractions that keep you away from it, and seek the will of the Lord in your life.