Take Up Your Cross, You Got This

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” To become Jesus’ disciple we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. To deny yourself would basically mean preferring your neighbor before yourself. Losing the me, myself, and I mentality of it’s all about you, which it isn’t. To take up your cross has many indications. It’s doing the harder stuff in life that normally gets us bent out of shape. It could be treating others with love and respect even though they don’t deserve it. Your dealing with it to help yourself become more humble for the Lord’s service. Then there’s the command to follow Jesus. Jesus left us all kinds of examples for us in following Him. His time on earth demonstrated how we should conduct ourselves and how to deal with the forces of darkness victoriously. When we read in the text, whoever wants to save their life will lose it, that’s concerning. Once we’ve decided to deny ourselves, to become Christ centered in all we do and think, you have just saved your eternal life and sealed your stay on earth until God calls you home to Himself and not prematurely dying. Take up your cross, it was made for you to carry.