https://www.christian-faith.com/why-live-for-god-and-not-for-yourself/

For none of us live for ourselves, and no one dies for himself.
For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

http://www.thetransformedsoul.com/additional-studies/spiritual-life-studies/dying-to-self

...The world’s philosophy says LIVE FOR SELF... but God’s Word says DIE TO SELF! Many people came to Jesus and asked to be His disciples, but most of them turned away because they were not willing to give themselves to Christ; i.e., make themselves a “slave of Christ” (Lk 14:26, 33; 16:13; Rom 12:1; 1 Cor 6:19-20; 1 Pet 1:18-19). Jesus said, “He who loves his father or mother or himself more than Me, he is not worthy of Me” (Mt 10:37-39). Thus Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

C. S. Lewis’ literary demon “Screwtape” has something insightful to say. He tells his young nephew that humans rarely pray for the thing God wants them to pray for — they simply want enough grace to see them through some moment or time of trouble... they conjure up a vision of the future they want and appeal for that outcome. They persist in wrapping their anxious hands around life’s steering wheel as if “it’s going to work this time if only they clutch it more tightly.” The most difficult prayer for us to voice is, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Our conversations with God regularly leapfrog over our intellectual resolve not to “ask for stuff,” and land squarely on the bargaining and pleading table. The best we seem to be able to do is arrive at a compro- mise between what we know to be right intellectually and the howl of protest that lies within us.

Obedience isn’t easy. Sometimes our carnal mind doesn’t like the idea of God having His way and us obeying it – it is the nature of man to “want things to go his way.” When things don’t go as we planned... when it rains on our parade... when someone says something unbecoming to us... when our world turns upside down... when difficulties and circumstances tax us too much... when we get turned down for a promotion... when we don’t get what we worked so hard to acquire – the long and short of it all is, “it bothers us!” “it rubs us wrong!” “it makes us angry!” Here’s the real rub: Just because we are living a life of obedience doesn’t auto- matically make our situation better. Most believers think that by being obedient the clouds will go away and skies will turn blue... their financial problems will disappear and their little nest egg will grow again... their physical infirmities will go away and their health will once again return. Sometimes these things may happen, but at other times they don’t. Is God still good? Absolutely. This we will also conclude: being in God’s will is far better than being outside His will. The secret to a “joy-filled life” doesn’t lie in the absence of pain or in demanding our own way, but in “dying to self” and embracing God’s will.

Why Live for God and not for Yourself?
From time to time the suggestion comes even into the minds of Christians – "Why live for God? Why don't you just live for yourself?" This suggestion appeals to the most basic instincts of fallen mankind – pride and the desire for independence. It is similar to the temptation given to Eve in the Garden of Eden. The idea the serpent was planting there was that "God knows that in the day you eat of the tree you will be wise", and by implication – wise enough to live without God's direction. So there is nothing new in this line of thinking. And the source of such thinking continues to be the Kingdom of Darkness.

I'd like to offer some reasons why it is best to live for God and not for yourself. Sometimes reasons help, but once you've seen the reasons, and the thoughts persist, the best thing you can do is use spiritual weapons and spiritual authority to bind the demons, and command the devil's forces to SHUT UP and go away. And you can set your mind on things that please God and tune the devil out. Even so, I think we can give plenty of good reasons why you and I should live for God and not for ourselves.

1. God loves us

God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son to be a sacrifice for sins in our place (John 3:16). The Bible says that if He did not spare His own Son, will He not together with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

The Lord GOD sacrifices His own comfort and blessings for us to the point where it hurts Him. When He asks us to respond to His love, its very reasonable, and its not because He is selfish. The cross should demonstrate that to us.

We are dealing with an amazingly loving, caring God who generously gives us all things. Since we are going to be looked after so well under God's care, is it not reasonable to acknowledge His Kingly rule over us?



2. God is good

Before sin entered into the world, God made everything very good. Everything was in perfect harmony. The vegetation, the climate, the animals were all perfect. However, disruption and corruption entered the world essentially through the decision of mankind to deny God His rightful place of Lordship in the world. It is not that WE are good and GOD is evil. No, let us have the humility and clear-sightedness to realize that it is our rebellion which messed up things, and continues to mess them up. Embracing that path of rebellion and independence is insanity – its a proven way to mess up the beautiful world God created. Its just plain wrong to cut ourselves off from God's loving rule.



3. God is much smarter than we are

The LORD GOD Almighty made the heavens and the earth. He understands every mystery – both in the physical world and in the spiritual world. God understands everything. He understands how this Universe works. He understands cosmology, astronomy, geology, physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, psychology, the human brain, medicine, law, the arts, finance, sociology, music and every other field of knowledge you can think of. He understands eternal things. He understands the spiritual world. He knows all about the demonic spiritual entities that are scheming to lure you and destroy you forever.

But you (and I) have only a limited partial knowledge of any of these areas. We do not know the future. God does. God loves us so much and wants our well-being so much that he is going to reveal to us directions for our life that are going to work out much better than anything we could have planned for ourselves based on our limited knowledge.

God is not operating on a short term view. He is interested in our character more than our present comfort. He is more interested in our faith than our fun. This is why we should trust that God is working something good in us even when life is painful. Even when our life is painful, we should accept and believe that a Loving Father God is working what is good for us. That doesn't mean we should accept the devil's work as God's plan for our lives. We need to resist the devil. But we need to understand that above all of this there is a God who has every detail of the Universe and our future well understood. He desires that we overcome Satan and inherit the Kingdom of God. That is much better than rejecting God and trying to live independently of God.

4. We live in a world full of hostile and deceptive evil spirits

Gnosticism and various occult religions sometimes portray Satan/Lucifer as the liberator of humanity, and God as a cruel tyrant overlord. But this portayal is deception.

If you go off into this wide world without God, without reference to God and His laws, His ways, it is not so much God that will punish you, as you will break yourself, and you will open the door to demonic curses.

Satan is always seeking to destroy the souls of men. In living for yourself, in pursuing whatever your flesh and eyes desire, and your own importance in the world, you are going to come into conflict with other people. You are going to neglect something important in your life – be it family, relationships or something else. You are going to set your heart on something that won't be able to give you the promised satisfaction you were hoping for. One way or another (and there are too many ways to mention), you are going to be hurt, damaged, robbed and ultimately destroyed if you pursue this path to the end.

The prodigal Son in the story of Luke 15 wanted to live for himself, and he took the things he could from his father so he could go off and have a good time. But when the money (the resources) ran out, he fell on hard times. He found that people didn't care about him after all. He was brought to a very low place, feeding pigs and desiring pig food.

It was there, down in the mud, that he realised he was better off being a servant in his father's house than living his life without his father's blessing.

We need to realise that although there may be short term gratification in the path of sin, it leads to humiliation. There are thieves and robbers on that road. We are much better off doing the journey of life with God, than without God.

God has a purpose for us that is not merely focused on our own personal interests, but also on the well-being of others. He calls us to live a life of love. He calls us to be a bigger person that what we currently are.

But when we seek to live for ourselves, and reject God's place in our lives, we are going to open ourselves up to the malicious activity of demons that seek for nothing more than our eventual destruction. It is hard for them to conceal their malevolent natures so much that they often work to hurt the people of the world that are already firmly in their camp anyway. And this fact allows some people to wake up and receive God's love after all.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-inevitable-misery-of-living-for-yourself/