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What is death to self?
Does death to self really mean we lose our own desires or needs, etc?
Simple answer: NO. The only thing that really changes is that we gradually acquire the knowledge of God's will so that when it differs from ours we can choose His will over ours. We treat our will as if it were dead, whenever it opposes what we know to be God's will. As we do this, we will grow in self-control and self-understanding. At the same time, many of our attitudes will change. How much a person changes really depends on how much needs to change, and how much self-control they have. Can God can give a person the strength to defeat an addiction or some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorders? Certainly. It may come as a single and sudden victory or only after many false starts. No two people bring the same personal makeup, history and current situation to Christ. So, the way He chooses to work in us is as varied as the diversity of methods He used when performing the miracles recorded in the Gospels.
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