Taking Up Your Cross

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:27

One of the most famous statements Jesus ever made was this: “You must take up that cross, deny yourself, and follow me.” I want you to understand what He is saying when He makes this statement. He’s saying to us, His followers, “I want you to die every day to what you want and follow me.” In other words, you need to see your old self, that old sin nature, nailed to the cross.

This is not something that we need to be thinking about once a year. Instead, you must choose to live dead to yourself every single day. Your old sin nature has been crucified with Christ. He broke the master link of sin in your life because of the cross. We constantly need to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually see that our old sin nature has been nailed to the cross.

The image of someone carrying a cross makes us think about what happened on the Via Dolorosa, as Jesus was led out to the place where He was crucified. We need to understand what Jesus said to His disciples long before He was crucified. He was laying the groundwork for us to understand what it means to be a disciple following Him. We need to live crucified lives.

And while this seems like a lot to ask of us, we can’t forget that the cross has the power to set us free, even now. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we are set free. We need to stay in that position of dying to self, dying to what we want, and dying to what we want to happen.

Now, I realize that you might be experiencing many things in your life right now that didn't even appear on your dream list years ago. And while it’s a tough set of circumstances to be dealing with, the only way you can walk through those uncomfortable and painful times is to see yourself dead on the cross. Your sin nature gives you those desires to have your way rather than God's way. But when you submit to that aspect of denying yourself, that is taking up your cross.