What Does It Really Mean To Take Up The Cross And Follow Christ?
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (Luke 9:23, 24)
WHAT IT MEANS IN PRACTICAL TERMS TO LOSE ONE'S LIFE:
· Being willing to forgive and embrace those who sin against you and see what they meant for harm as sent from God for good. (Genesis 50:20; Acts 7:60; Philippians 1:15-18)
· Being willing to face the loneliness that sometimes comes with dedication to Christian service. (Philippians 2:19-21; 2 Timothy 1:15; 4:10, 16)
· Being willing to keep walking faithfully, one step at a time, through the desert of the soul, when it seems God has abandoned you. (Job 23:8-17; Psalm 42; 84:5-7)
· Being willing to accomplish what God calls you to do. (Isaiah 6:8; 50:7; Acts 20:24; 26:19; 1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Timothy 4:7)
· Being willing to surrender all to God and not strike back at those who oppose you. (Luke 6:27-36; 1 Peter 2:20-23)
WHAT IT MEANS IN PRACTICAL TERMS TO SAVE ONE'S LIFE: "It is getting up in the morning, going to work, coming home, going through the drill, playing some golf on the weekends, going to church, and taking a vacation now and then." In other words, "IT IS LIVING LIFE AND KEEPING ONE'S DISCRETIONARY TIME FOR ONE'S SELF."
ARE YOU IN FACT TAKING UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOWING JESUS? If you are, then "your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:5-8)
—culled from Facts of the Matter
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