Taking your cross

Taking your cross

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me (Mt. 10:38, NKJV).

It’s on the cross that Jesus shed His blood and gave up His life for the redemption of mankind. To be a worthy disciple of Jesus, therefore, every Christian is expected to take his cross and follow Jesus every day. The cross is actually the centrality of Christianity. To dismiss it is to ignore the most essential ingredient of the Christian faith.

But what does it mean to take one’s cross and follow Jesus? What it means is to deny oneself of the excessive desires of the flesh. Of course the cross represents suffering, affliction, pain, shame, rejection and death. The cross is meant to mortify (that is, put to death) everything that is not of God in us. So taking up the cross means being ready for the death of the sinful nature in us.

As it were it was on the cross that God rendered sin impotent. There the sting of death was neutralized and Satan’s dominion was nullified. At the cross you decide to surrender to God’s will for your life and throw away personal ambitions. The cross empowers the Christians to become what God ordained them to be.

The cross affects our goals in life; our temper; our attitude towards money matters; our desires; our reactions to what people say to us; our appetite; and so on. Without taking the cross, our walk with the Holy Spirit will be hindered. Christians who do not take their cross are always unstable in their Christian lives. They might be hot yesterday and be lukewarm or cold today.

That we can avoid the cross and still be worthy disciples of Jesus is absolutely impossible. No one can be on the fence. You are either in or out. We should all desire to come to the point where, like Paul, we can say: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” May God help us. In Jesus name!

Today’s corporate prayer: O Lord, help me to take up my cross everyday. In the name of Jesus!

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BIBLE IN A YEAR: II Kings 11 – 15

Also Read: In the Cross: Dead to the rudiments and course of this world