Take up your cross

Luke 9:23,24 “Then he said to them, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cress daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever losses their life for me will save it”

                   Giving up, letting go, surrendering ourselves. That is why, at time, our crosses are heavier than at other times because we can’t, or won’t, give it up. It is our refusal of Christ’s help in our lifes. The attitude of “I can do this or that, or I can win over Satan and this sin, only adds to the weight of our crosses.

          To honestly and truly accept Jesus Christ as our Savior in the ONLY way to begin to shed the weight off our crosses. I believe we ALL carry crosses. But when we dive into His word and begin to understand it, we begin to allow God’s way of living to replace our way. We die to self and our selfishness which allows the weight of our crosses to become lighter. Carrying the cross of Christ means we lose a little more of ourselves daily, but we gain a life full of Jesus, where He is the center, the main Person in our hearts.

          Jesus came into the world as nothing. He came to lead by example, to serve. He gave up living in a sinless place to come and live in a sinful world to show us just how much God loves us. Jesus was a slave, it you will, to God His Father following His instructions. “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, He can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” John 5:19 “By myself I can do nothing, I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me,” John 5:20 Jesus took up the ‘cross’ of obedience to the Father, just as we must take up our ‘cross’ of obedience to Christ Jesus. “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved y my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” John 14:21.

          Just as Jesus was naked on His cross, we too must strip away the layers of selfishness and come naked to Christ. Come humbly bared before Christ in order to be clothed in His mercy, grace and love. When we begin to carry our cross of obedience, others may look at it as suffering because they will see us hurting both physically and emotionally because we will be seen as being “beaten down” by those who we have trusted because they do not understand our stance for Christ. We will be different, not of this world. It will be at these times when we fall to our knees, with arms raised up, praying to Jesus Christ so that He can pick us up, like His small child, and hold us tight.

          Truly, “there is no comfortable way to carry our cross of obedience.” But our Savior will be right beside us, to keep us on our feet so that we can move forward advancing another step, and going further down the road He has paved for us to walk on. Even though we will walk through storms and hot dry areas and time of tranquility, Christ Jesus will also be there walking with us. Holding our hands. At His calling out encouraging words, we must keep our hearts and ears open to hear His voice and opening our eyes to look upon His word and understand His teachings. These words, and our understanding, will enable us to maneuver around the worldly objects that bring on the stormy weather, the desert like times. His words will lead us to the peaceful ports and the ‘oasis’ where we can ‘rest’ and be ‘refreshed’ by our Maker, our Savior, our King.

          Let’s look again at Luke 9:23,24. In our daily lives, how often do we die to ourselves? How often do we sacrifice ourselves on the alter? “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and Sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1. “Walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” We too must offer ourselves daily. Ephesians 5:2. We must start each day in dying to us, in order that we live for Him. “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lops that openly praise His name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices God is pleased” Hebrews 13:15,16. As we praise our Heavenly Father, His Son, we place Him ahead of us. We step behind Christ, we ‘die’ then to ourselves and our troubles. We then place ourselves on the cross of “self” in order to die to the one (ourselves) the world says should carry our burdens.

          We literally need to start with outstretched arms—like on the cross. Dying! Giving up! Giving in! By dying daily, we live! We live with Christ in us! By living in Christ we are able to suffer, because Christ walks with us. “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Romans 6:6,7. At our acceptance of Christ in our hearts we make the decision to die to self. We nail our ‘selves’ to our old cross and leave it, then begin to carry our new cross—Jesus Christ. To carry our cross daily is hard but as we study His word and begin to meditate on it, carrying our cross will become a desire we full embrace and it will then become easier for us.

          The cross, it is where our sins were forgiven, where His love for us was fully seen and understood. The cross, is what we carry in our obedience, and desire, to follow Jesus. The cross is the object that connects us to Him. As we desire to look to Him for direction and guidance then our cross will not be a burden but a desire we joyfully accept daily.