Delight and Denial.....

I have always loved the fact that the first and greatest commandment is one that instructs us to love and not one that instructs us to deny.
A lawyer asks Jesus “What is the first and greatest commandment.?”
Imagine if Jesus had answered “Thou shalt deny thyself with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and with all thy strength”

Love and delight, and not self denial have always been the Biblical motivation for serving God. Self denial carries no virtue in or of itself.
Self denial only has any real value when that which you delight in is far superior to the act of denial that you might carry out to obtain your delight.
“I count all things but loss (my denial) for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ (my delight)
“I press toward the mark (my denial) for the prize (my delight)......” Phillipians 3

There is no point in self denial for self denials sake alone.
It only becomes of worth when the act of self denial is for the purpose of realising something in which we find a much greater delight.
God is my delight – and any act of self denial only has merit when He is my goal. Any personal price that I might pay, is only of worth and only of value when it is paid in order that I might obtain my delight, my one determined purpose.... “that I might know Him.”