make sure it is with humility

"To deny self means the same thing as to present our bodies as living sacrifices. But again, how do we deny ourselves? Some think that by doing without certain luxuries and pleasures they are thereby being quite righteous and are denying themselves something they would very much enjoy having. I have even heard brethren boast of the pleasures they denied themselves. This is self-denial in only a superficial sense, and, if a matter of pride, is not sacrifice. Whether we have much or little makes no fundamental difference. There is no virtue in poverty and no sin in riches, so far as they themselves are concerned. What really matters is the use we make of our poverty or riches. The love of money which is the root of all evil can flourish just as vigorously in the poor as in the rich. To deny ourselves means particularly to refuse and to deny all that would exalt self in opposition to God; to bring our own wills into subjection to the perfect will of God; to turn from all things, no matter how innocent and harmless in appearance, which would rob God of our love."