What is Jesus commanding when He says, “Take up your cross daily and follow me”?
Let’s start by what Jesus is not saying… He is not saying that believers should desire, or have faith to suffer. Even though we all suffer hardship, the hardship that we endure for the sake of the gospel has nothing to do with taking up our cross. Jesus is not saying that we should take vows of poverty, or that we should give up all of the good things in life for His sake. In fact He says that He came that we may have life and have it more abundantly.
What Jesus is saying is that we need to die to doing things our own way… we need to die to self-life. And we need to die to the flesh and the desires of the flesh if we want to successfully follow Him. The New Living Translation says, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.’
Many believers have the problem of wanting to serve the Lord their way. They want to continue to resolve things in their own strength, they want to do what they want, when they want and as much as they want to. Many pick the scriptures that they like while omitting the ones that they don’t… they take scripture out of context and interpret scripture to try to make it confirm their lifestyles. If we try to follow Jesus our way it just will not work out. If we try to do things in our own strength, we will fail. If we insist on a life of self-reliance, we will be hindered by the limitations of self-reliance.
Taking up your cross daily is daily dying to your flesh. Taking up your cross daily is daily dying to your own self-reliant efforts. Taking up your cross daily is daily dying to your own ambition and taking up your cross daily is living a life yielded to Jesus as Lord, His Word, His New Covenant, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. “Father, not my ‘fleshly will’, but Your will be done”.
As we take up our cross daily we will begin to experience Jesus; resurrection power flowing in and through our lives daily, we will begin to live in His ability, His strength and His power. As we take up our cross daily, we will begin to live in joy, peace and blessing, we will begin to do supernaturally what we cannot do in the natural and we will begin to walk in every promised blessing from the Lord.
Every day when you wake up, I encourage you to look at the cross… focus on all that Jesus did for you and then take up your cross and die to the flesh life and then lay hold of the resurrection life, in Jesus Name! – Selah
