“If anyone would come after me, let him DENY HIMSELF and take up his cross and FOLLOW ME”
Mark 8:34 ESV
“And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.””
Mark 14:30 ESV
In our lives someone WILL BE and MUST BE denied EVERY SINGLE day. Self or Jesus Christ.
We cannot follow Jesus and put self #1.
To put Jesus #1 and follow him is to put self (with his/her desire for pride of life and status and pleasure and ease and honor and money) in his proper place …daily…repeatedly.