To deny yourself means to stop making your own concerns the object of your life and actions. You must be obedient to the Messiah. It is not referring to asceticism (a lifestyle of abstaining from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals), self-rejection, self-hatred, or even disowning particular sins. It means to place God’s will before your own will.1
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.