Hey Mike,
Just writing to say AMEN! to this response you gave to a woman that had written you:

When you say, “Knowing that everything God does is to bring about good does not help. I am afraid…” What you are saying, without realizing it, is that you fear that God has no intention of allowing flesh and blood to inherit the kingdom of God, and you simply do not like that prospect. You want to cling to the things of this life; your children, your husband and your home. You are simply being shown that you are still attached to this physical sphere, the natural realm, and you are not yet attached to “the things of the spirit.” In reality “the things of the spirit are [ still] foolishness to you” because you fear losing the things of this life. Here is Christ’s solution to that dilemma:”

I’ve been experiencing the same thing this woman is experiencing and I knew in the back of my mind that this fear I have is really just a spiritual indication that I’m attached to this thing called “life” and that I’m afraid of how God may destroy it.  I am also afraid of how my own carnal actions may affect my friends and family and the grief/ shame I could bring them through.  While this reaction is normal, can I go even out on a limb and wonder if I am also too attached to how “the men of this world” perceive me?  I am learning to be thankful for this very painful process, but I have yet to truly see that the destruction of the flesh is something I should desire.

Your brother in Christ,
N____

Hi N____,
Thank you for your comments.
You say:

“I am learning to be thankful for this very painful process, but I have yet to truly see that the destruction of the flesh is something I should desire.”

The “destruction of the flesh” in scriptural terms is not to be confused with a desire to commit suicide. Quite to the contrary, when we “die with Christ in baptism and are raised with Him, we walk in newness of life,” meaning we are really coming to experience life to its fullest in these clay vessels.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Look at this verse of scripture:

Ecc 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole [ duty] of man.
Ecc 12:14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Christ said He had come to judge this world.

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

God’s judgments make every wrong right.

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

So when the book of Ecclesiastes ends with this conclusion, it is telling us that the whole man is a man who fears God and keeps His commandments. That is what a whole man is. The word ‘duty’ is not necessarily a bad translation, but it is simply not in the Hebrew. None of us are whole as long as we are slaves to our own flesh. But it is counter- productive to fail to realize that “we can of our own selves do nothing,” and that God is working all things after the counsel of His own will,” and that we will overcome and judge ourselves in His time and on His schedule.

Joh 5:19  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

If this is true of Christ, how much truer is it of us?

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye [ are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: f or without me ye can do nothing.

I hope this helps to give you a greater appreciation for what the scriptures mean by “dying daily.”

Your brother in Christ,
Mike