Dying to Live

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.” John 12:24-25

So often the words of Jesus are counterintuitive; the verses you just read are a good example of some of those words.
Each of us is born with a survival instinct for self-preservation. We will do whatever it takes to stay alive. If you have ever trained to be a lifeguard you will remember how you were taught to always rescue a drowning person from behind so they cannot grab on to you. The drowning person’s survival instinct is to grab anything around them to hold themself up out of the water. If you as the rescuer are in front of them they will try to climb on you and in the process possibly drown both of you. It is our survival instinct to self-preserve. When Jesus says something like, “You must die to produce,” that seems unnatural to us. That thought goes against our very nature. Jesus explains the thought even more in verse 25 when he tells us that if we try to save our life we will lose it, but if we give our life up to him we gain it. It is only when we die to self and completely yield ourselves to Christ that he can use us to show his love and forgiveness to others. As Christ is seen in us, others are drawn to him and He can produce fruit though us.
As a Christ-follower how well have you been dying to self lately?

-Pastor Tim