Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also]. Matthew 16:24 (Amplified Bible Classic Edition, AMPC)

This verse tells us how to be Jesus’ disciples; learners and followers of Him. A person does this by denying himself, which means to disregard, lose sight of, and forget yourself and your interests and take up your cross and follow Jesus.

My point is, when we don’t get our way and we get mad, get jealous, or hold onto grudges, we are not denying ourselves. We won’t let offense offend us if we don’t take offense. We must lose sight of the wrong, lose sight of what we want, and do what Jesus wants. We take up the cross and live a crucified life, which is dead to sin, injustice, what we want, and having our way all the time. We get hurt because we don’t get what we want, but when we live a crucified life, we can’t be hurt. You can’t hurt a dead man. We become dead to all the wrong in the world. We don’t focus on how someone mistreated us.

Of course we don’t turn a blind eye to wrong, but we don’t let the wrong cause us to do wrong. Instead, we continue to do what’s right and follow Him, seeking the interests of Jesus above our own. That’s not to say we can’t have desires, interests, or want things. Just make sure what you want is what Jesus wants for you, becuase He always wants the best for us.

As we lose sight of what we want, we will cleave to, or adhere to, Jesus. We’ll conform to Christ, His example of living, and even His example of dying- if it comes to that. We must learn to die daily to selfishness and seek only what Jesus wants for us. As we do, we will live like Jesus lived. He lived for others, not to please Himself. He lived to minister to others. The more we die to ourselves, the more God will flow through us to give life to others. As this happens, what once bothered us will bother us no more, and will have no power to steal our peace, joy, victory, witness, etc. And we will walk in victory, glorifying God with our lives.