The Death of Me: {Part 4} Laying it Down

Last Updated on June 4, 2015 by Stacy Averette

I had intended to write about “Living in Peace” today but when I sat down to write God took me in a different direction. I even tried to make this the Conclusion and write about peace for Part 4, but again, God made it clear to me to change my plans.

I still have a lot of dying to do. The Death of Me, Dying to What Others Think of Me, Feeling Misunderstood, and Being in Control is only the beginning. This dying—the breaking of my will—has been painful and humiliating at times. I’ve done my share of kicking and screaming and huffing and puffing and pouting and whining. My hard, unyielding self still resists surrender as she justifies herself, stands up for her rights, and seeks her own glory.

Lay It Down

But Oswalt Chambers reminded me, “Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God.”

Jesus died for me. He did what I could not do for myself. My physical death would accomplish nothing of eternal value and would have no bearing on the sins of the world. Jesus’ death on the cross was God’s plan to redeem the world. Laying down my life is God’s plan for me. Jesus showed me how. For thirty-three years He laid down His life to do the will of His Father.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (I John 3:16)

Laying down our life is not an easy thing to do.

In The Calvary Road, Roy Hession says:

“All day long the choice will be before us in a thousand ways. It will mean a constant yieldedness to those around us, for our yieldedness to God is measured by our yieldedness to man. Every humiliation, everyone who tries and vexes us, is God’s way of breaking us, so that there is a yet deeper channel in us for the Life of Christ. You see, the only life that pleases God and that can be victorious is His life—never our life, matter how hard we try. But inasmuch as our self-centered life is the exact opposite of His, we can never be filled with His life unless we are prepared for God to bring our life constantly to death.”

Jesus said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

I am a friend of Jesus. He laid down his life for me while I was a sinner. In view of His mercy, I will make my life a living sacrifice. I will deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him.
Click here to read The Death of Me: {Conclusion} Living in Peace