Denying ourselves, I think, is easier if we are doing it with a purpose, with a clear goal in mind. In other words, it's easier to say no to one thing while you are saying yes to another. Remember Jacob in the Bible?  He didn't mind giving up 7 years of his life if that meant getting Rachel as his wife. When I met my wife, I soon realized that she was worth giving up all the other girls I was dating or would ever date.  I was in love, she captured my heart, and that was that!  It was no big deal to give them up just so long as I could be with her.  

In the same way I don't mind giving up time and money to go to Ecuador because God put a love for the people of Ecuador in my heart. I think God is trying to put a love in our hearts for some group of people somewhere. This love may start small, like a seed. But it’s up to us what we do with the seed. Do we provide good soil for the seed or do we choke the seed/word and make it unfruitful? If we let the seed grow then it becomes our passion.

 

If we are passionate about something it doesn’t seem like a big sacrifice to give up other things to pursue it.  That's why Jesus died for us. The sacrifice of death and torture on the cross was outweighed by the 'joy set before him' of seeing us, his bride, saved from hell and sin.

If we think about giving it all up for Jesus in a vacuum that’s too hard.  In a vacuum there’s only 1 thing to focus on, and that’s what we are going to lose. But when the Lord puts a ‘crazy love’ for somebody in our hearts, it will incite a passion that will make us absolutely ‘radical’.