Turn YourSELVES AND LIVE YE. Ezekiel 18:32

When we turn our SELF to Jesus, we find out that the best way to live our lives is to. . . 

love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind and love our neighbor as ourSELVES. …Matthew 22:37-39

When we learn to love in this order, we can truly love our SELF as we should, not as we used to, before we met  Jesus. Let’s take a look in the garden, in the very beginning, where the SELFish SELF first surfaced.

God is love and when He tell us things, it’s for our own good. In the beginning God told Adam not to eat of one certain tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.The name of the tree should have given Adam a clue.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you may not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you share surely die. Genesis 2:16-17

Well, we know the first two humans did in fact, eat of that very tree.

And Adam said to God after they ate of the forbidden fruit,

I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid mySELF. Genesis 3:10

Adam had been naked from day one, but after he partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, apparently, his focus shifted from God to SELF.  When our focus shifts from God to SELF, we see shame.

God knew where Adam was when he called out and asked him,

Where are you?  Genesis 3:9

I’m sure Adam had a better image of himSELF before he ate of that forbidden fruit, because before he ate of it, he walked with God, after he ate of it, he ran from God. God wanted Adam to know where he was in his relationship with Him now, and to confess it, so he asked him, “Where are you?” Adam no longer saw himSELF in the light of God’s great love for him. We know this because of what he said and what he did.  He said he was afraid because of shame, and he ran and hid from God. When we look to ourSELVES, we can often become afraid because of the shame we see, and shame will make us run; shame will make us want to avoid God.

But there is a remedy. Jesus Christ is the remedy.

Jesus told His disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himSELF, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24

So, I thought we’re supposed to love our SELF, so now we have to deny our SELF? Yes, the SELFish SELF! The old SELF that has bad thoughts about itSELF, because that SELF lived in darkness, outside of God’s great Love and that SELF is always wanting to resurface. Let us look at a good example of denying SELF.

Where was Jesus headed when He picked up His cross? He was headed toward fulfilling His Father’s will. He was headed to saving the world! His focus was on His Father and on us, not on HimSELF!  Perfect, unconditional, unending, unfailing LOVE in action!

You see, the Lord GOD is,

. . . not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

It is for our very own good to focus more on God, more on His will, than on our SELF because God is always good, and God is always love, and we are not.

So, how do we deny SELFish SELF, or we could also call it, the flesh? 

We can pray. I know that prayer is not always the first thing I want to do. To tell the truth, I must quiet my flesh or my SELFish SELF down long enough to do so, the same thing goes for any pursuit of following after God, such as reading His word, going to church, fellowshipping with other believers, helping others. It’s not that we don’t want to do these things, our new recreated SELVES does want to do these things, but it’s that old SELFish SELF that keeps tugging at us. Our new SELVES must stay in charge, we must continually deny our old SELF, pick up our cross and proceed in following God’s will for our lives.

Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. Mark 14:38
 
Drawing near to God, abiding in His great love, is a daily event and it is beneficial for our neighbor and for ourSELVES.

Submit yourSELVES therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. . .James 4:7-8

Adam and Eve didn’t resist the devil and the result was running from God.

God is always love and love always produces good fruit. If we abide in the light of God’s great love for us, we have a good chance to produce good fruit. 

And Holy Love has many fruits,

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: Galatians 5:22-23

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not SELF-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Forbidden fruit is bad fruit. I would say that bad fruit comes from fear and if we abide in fear, there’s a good chance our SELFish SELF or flesh will lash out . . .and a lot of times, at others.  We will seek means by which to protect our SELVES, and these means come in many forms.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, SELFish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Galatians 5:19-21

When we focus on SELF, we try to protect SELF in our own strength. When we focus on God, we know He has our back. We know this because we are continually renewing our minds with new experiences of being known and loved by Him.

The fruit of faith is love~Our new, recreated SELF lives here.
The fruit of fear is hate~Our old, SELFish SELF lives here.

Now I’m gonna try to cram as many Scriptures about how to deal with SELFish SELF in this blog as I can. There’s power in the Word. There’s power in the Name of Jesus! We can overcome SELFish SELF. (Please read each Scripture in its entirety)

I have taken the liberty to replace words like yourSELF, himSELF, themSELF and thySELF with simply. . . SELF. 
 
I hope the following list helps us see what has been  subtilty going wrONg with our SELVES and change all that by the power of God’s great Love for us.

Let us deny SELF and confess Jesus!
Let us take up our cross, unfollow SELF and follow Jesus!
Let us not live unto SELF, but unto Jesus, who died for us and rose again!
Let us build up our SELF on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost!
Let us keep SELF in the love of God!
Let us remember, we can’t save SELF, SELF’s salvation is from God!
Let us not ask of God only for SELF, but for others too!
Let us delight SELF in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart!
Let us not be foolish by putting SELF first!
Let us exercise our SELF unto godliness!
Let us study God’s Word to show our SELF approved of God, that we be not ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth!
Let us in all things show SELF a pattern of good works, in good doctrine and sound speech!
Let us consecrate our SELF to the Lord!
Let us keep SELF separated from the ways of this world!
Let us not lay up for SELF treasures upon earth, but rather treasures in heaven!
Let us not abuse SELF with drugs and alcohol are any other destructive things!
Let us not consume our SELF with the cares of this life!
Let us reckon our SELF dead unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Let us examine whether SELF is in the faith. 
Let us speak to SELF in spiritual songs!
Let us submit SELF to others in the Lord, and in the fear of God!
Let us submit SELF to God and resist the devil!
Let us humble SELF in the sight of the Lord!
Let us not fashion our SELF according to former lusts we did in our ignorance!
Let us keep SELF from idols!
Let us humble SELF to God as a little children!
Let us not deceive our SELF;  the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God!
Let us not entangle SELF only with the affairs of this life
Let us not trust in our SELF that we are righteous and despise others!
Let us have the joy of our Lord fulfilled in our SELF!
Let us do nothing in pride, but esteem others better than SELF!
Let us beware of the love of money, for it is the root of all evil, when it is yearned for, it will pull us from the faith and pierce our SELF with many sorrows!
Let us do nothing through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind esteem others better than our SELF!
Let us repent and acknowledge God’s truth, that that we may recover SELF out of the snare of the devil!
Let us give our SELF continually to prayer and the Word of God!
Let us seek to please others rather than to please our SELF!
Let us consider that we are not sufficient in SELF, but our sufficiency is of God!
Let us cleanse SELF from all filthiest of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God!
Let us not deceive SELF by saying we do not sin, but let us confess our sins for God is faithful and just to forgive us.
Let us delight SELF in all God’s commandments!

Prayer
In this age of following one another and taking endless SELFies, let us give our SELVES unto You God by daily giving our SELVES unto prayer, reading Your Word and loving our neighbor. Thank You Jesus for not coming down from that cross to save YourSELF, but you stayed there to save us. . .from our SELFish SELVES! May we see ourSELVES in the light of Your great love from now on. May we take up our cross daily, deny our SELVES and follow You in doing our Father’s will. May are daily prayer be. . .Our Father, May Your good will be done on this earth as it is in heaven and help us do our part in carrying it out.  Amen

Next blog/ our part in. . .Thy Will Be Done

Philippians 2:21 Proverbs 15:32 Proverbs 19:16 Proverbs 1:30-31 Proverbs 21:2 Matthew 16:24 Matthew 16:24 2 Corinthians 5:15 Jude 1:20-21 Ephesians 2:8 Exodus 9:17 1 Kings 3:10-11 Psalm 37:4 Proverbs 9:12 Proverbs 30:32 Mark 15:30 Acts 8:29 Romans 2:21 1 Timothy 4:7 1 Timothy 4:12-16 2 Timothy 2:15-16 Titus 2:7-8 James 2:8 Exodus 32:29 Leviticus 19:4 Leviticus 20:7 Joshua 23:11 Ezra 10:11 Isaiah 29:9 Ezekiel 14:6 Matthew 6:19 Luke 21:34 Romans 6:11 Romans 6:13 2 Corinthians 7:11 2 Corinthians 13:5 Ephesians 5:19 Ephesians 5:21 James 4:7,10 1 Peter 1:14 1 John 5:21 Matthew 18:4 Luke 9:25 Luke 10:29 Luke 12:21 Romans 12:3 Romans 14:12 Romans 15:2-3 1 Corinthians 3:18-19 Galatians 6:1-5 2 Timothy 2:4 James 1:23-25 1 John 2:6 1 John 3:2-3 1 John 5:18 Luke 18:9 John 17:13 Philippians 2:3 1 Timothy 6:10 2 Timothy 2:25-26 Acts 6:4 Romans 15:1 2 Corinthians 3:5 2 Corinthians 7:1 1 John 1:8-9 Psalm 119:47 Romans 7:25 Psalm 4:4 Psalm 36:1-2 Psalm 81:11-12 Proverbs 8:33-36  Proverbs 12:15 Proverbs 25:27 James 1:14 James 1:22 James 1:26 2 Peter 2:22 KJV