When I first got a glimpse of Christ’s example of self-denial, I started with small experiments of this give and take relationship with God…eating less, talking less, standing in the back of the line, considering others as better, denying myself an indulgence and spending it on the poor. In this interactive relationship of denial, I started making pecan pies and giving them away instead of eating them. This was an enormous calorie reversal to say the least, but more importantly, I experienced for the first time in my life wanting less and the reward for God-led giving. The weight started coming off and the joy rushed into the soul with this denial. Give and take! Give and take! I slowly lost the fear of sacrifice (giving to God) with food. The point is, start with something small—deny food when you are not hungry and see if you do not get back immediately. Then you extrapolate this formula for other fears and vices and money. Amazing, graceful transformations of Saints will occur for those who purify themselves in this manner of denial. We are then born of the seed of the Holy Spirit of God, so we cannot go on taking more, and we will want less because we have been born of the gift of the Spirit, which is self-control. “Anyone born of God will not continue to sin”—I John 3 makes total sense…

“No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning…” I John 3:9a

For more on this topic, read History of the Love of God, Volume II – A Love More Ancient than Time