The way of Jesus, living a life in step with our Father’s heart and participating in His acting in the world, always requires a giving up of self. A willful dying of self-absorption and self-fulfillment for the sake of another (others), is always where Jesus leads us, for it is the destination that Jesus himself journeyed.

Choosing to move towards such sacrifice requires prayer. Not merely a prayer to know if we should go that way, but prayer to keep our hearts from the temptation of death to fight against it and to keep us from the enemy’s evils in an attempt to convince us that death is the end. This week, let us follow Jesus to our daily crosses, praying with Jesus as we enter the death of self.

As you pray (for yourself and for others you know who are the point of death of “self”), call to mind specifically where you are going. What “death” is our Father leading you towards? Then pray the prayer 3xs slowly. Pausing after each prayer, allowing your heart to be exposed and protected, and your ears open to the Comforter’s voice.

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me [or ____]. Nevertheless, not my will, but your good and perfect and perfecting will be done.
With Jessus I pray.