Self-denial is to be free to. In denying ones' self, one becomes free. In recovering freedom by way of deliberate release, one truly begins to own one's life. We deny ourselves so that we can truly own ourselves. For it is in truly owning ourselves that we are free to choose to offer this self to the single-minded purpose of the Kingdom of God.

Self-denial is not to be undertaken by way of punishing ourselves and our bodies. In the history of mankind, there have been many who have thought by some form of infliction of pain upon one's self, that a more noble sense of the divine was to be attained. This defies the sacredness of the human body - and thereby the human person - whose body was crafted by the hands of its Author of Life. The body, with all its decadence that we perceive it to suffer, is not to be denigrated mindlessly and carelessly. It is an instrument to be offered unto the redemptive purpose of its Crafter.

In the spirit of self-denial, we no longer cling on to possessions, relationships, health, and the like. It is not that we no longer possess these things, but rather, that we are no longer bound by them. In denying ourselves, the clutches of these good things no longer have a hold on us. We are thereby free to exploit these things for the Kingdom of God. We are also released from a fear to lose these things; we are emancipated from a false and superficial security that somehow our lives are better lived under the mastery of these things.

Self-denial is such that we shall own, but we shall no longer possess. For everything that we own shall be offered unto the higher purpose of the Kingdom of God. In releasing ourselves unto a freedom to live, we are truly free to fulfill a life of purpose and obedience when we hear the voice of God beckon.

The Kingdom of God is built by those who learn to deny themselves for its sake. For those who deny themselves not, they may perhaps (just perhaps) still constitute a part of this Kingdom; but they will not be cooperative builders in accordance with the divine design of its Master Architect, for they are enslaved to a purpose of a lower order.

It is the natural inclination for the human mind to subjectively rationalise himself unto a faith that requires no denial of the self. Yes, there is space within the human conscience for such false rationalisations indeed. For after all, to venerate anything or anyone other than God is actually to venerate one's self. But the cross of Christ - the ultimate symbol of suffering and self-denial - beckons unto the Christian to embrace the call to self-denial. It calls the Christian to rise beyond the voices of a thousand other seemingly similar gospels to embrace the Gospel of the God who carried his cross. For he is the God who said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me".

There are some who may say that self-denial should not be overly emphasised, for one must seek a balance in one's faith. But the God who called us unto faith has never ordained a balanced faith. His is a faith in which one must either choose him or choose one's self. And to choose him, one must abandon the self. There is no balance. Only choice.