We may compare our lower self with an unruly horse, and self-denial in its widest sense is the process of breaking it in until it answers obediently to its rider.  So it means continually and firmly saying No to all those self-centred and unworthy impulses which so powerfully surge up within ourselves and which, if left unchecked, end by mastering us.  On those occasions, when our lower self gains the upper hand, it means that our will has got the worst of it, and we have ceased to be free men and women.  Only when the wills of Christians are freely surrendered to Christ do they become truly masters of themselves – for Christ’s service is perfect freedom. (3)

Particular acts of self-denial, therefore, are aimed at strengthening the will so that it may be brought more closely into line with God’s will for us.  Restraint in speech (how many things we say that were better left unsaid!); doing without pleasures or luxuries; self-discipline in the time we give to watching television or playing computer games – in themselves these things may seem trivial.  But only those who have never practised such acts of self-denial would deny their value, for every act of self-mastery in one part of our lives strengthens our will in every part.

Should there be those who think that such acts of self-denial are unnecessary for them, let them reflect on Our Lord’s own practice.  Although Our Lord possessed all the human instincts and needs through which temptations come, unlike ourselves he had no inner tendency to wrong, and yet for all that, he considered it necessary to withdraw into the wilderness of Judea for a six weeks’ fast in order to establish the supremacy of his will.

Successive acts of self-denial pass gradually into a habit of self-discipline in which the lower self obediently subordinates itself and we are freed to devote ourselves more fully and wholeheartedly to pleasing God.