Pick Up Your Cross…

Have you ever heard the phrase, “pick up your cross”?

It’s part of a verse where Jesus says, “pick up your cross and follow Me,”.

This is a good, important thing to do.

It’s one of the basic parts of being a Christian.

 

To pick up our cross means to pick up the practice of obeying Christ and whatever calling He has placed on our life, to choose to lay our self aside, and to follow Him wherever He leads us.

 

Have you ever read the entire verse?

It’s found in Matthew 16:24 and says,

 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. (NIV)

 

Did you catch that?

It says to deny yourself.

 

Too often we try to follow Christ while still doing things our own way and living life on our terms.

That can’t be done.

We either follow Christ or we follow ourselves. We can’t do both.

 

Scripture is clear.

When we try to do both we end up hurting ourselves and hating or despising God. (Matthew 6:24).

 

To deny ourselves means we lay aside our wants and desires, choosing instead to seek a life of obedience to Christ.

It is choosing to no longer serve self but to instead serve only Christ.

 

Jesus is calling us to follow Him.

We cannot do that if we are walking out in front of Him, telling Him which way we are going and asking Him to come along with us and bless our path.

We cannot do that if we are walking beside Him, telling Him how it should be done.

We can only follow Him if we walk behind Him, following His lead and letting Him show us the way to go and what to do as we are going along.

 

It won’t be easy.

It means always choosing His way over the way we think is best or feel drawn to by our own desires, trusting that He has our best interests in mind.

 

It will be costly.

We’ll have to let go of people, habits, and things we love.

We’ll have to sacrifice time, money, and effort to accomplish what He calls us to.

These sacrifices will cleanse our lives of stumbling blocks and things that would try to distract us from what’s really important – following Jesus at all times, at all cost.

 

Following Jesus, really following Him, requires obedience, sacrifice, and trust.

It requires picking up our cross, denying ourselves, and going where He leads.

 

I encourage you to pray about whether you are carrying your cross.

If you aren’t or are only carrying it part-time, it’s not too late to take hold of it and follow Jesus wherever He leads you.

Take a minute, humbly pray and ask Jesus to show you the way and how to pick up your cross.

He’ll walk with you as He gently guides you to a life spent closer to Him, following and serving Him in all things.

 

 

 

 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. ²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” Galatians 2:20-21 (NIV)

 

Jesus said, ‘And whoever does not carry their cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:27 (NIV)

 

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:24 (NIV)         (in some translations the word money is translated riches, meaning all physical riches or “stuff”)