"We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives," writes Oswald Chambers in his devotional classic My Utmost for His Highest.
But he continues: "Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do."
The toughest call Jesus places on his disciples is to deny themselves and sacrifice their own pleasures on behalf of others.
Here are 10 Bible verses to remind you of that call:
John 15:12-14
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command."
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
"Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Mark 12:31
"The second most important command is this: Love your neighbour the same as you love yourself. These two commands are the most important."
Leviticus 19:18
"Forget about the wrong things people do to you. Don't try to get even. Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord."
Luke 22:42
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Yet not my will but yours be done."
Matthew 25:40
"The king will answer them, 'I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you did for one of my brothers or sisters, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did for me.'"
John 3:30
"He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less."
Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 5:16-17
'So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will never fulfill the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh wants is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, and so you do not do what you want to do."
Psalm 119:36
"Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain."
