23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? - Luke 9:23-25
My Pastor talked a little bit about this verse in church yesterday. He shared about how Jesus called us to "take up his cross daily," and how that was not a wish-washy statement, but a way of life that Christ called us too. I'm not very good at re-creating others' words so I will just share my own thoughts.
Jesus messages are hard to hear, even the people that heard the words straight from Jesus had a hard time accepting them. In today's culture, it is taught to never deny yourself of anything and do what you want. Jesus says the opposite. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." That's not an easy task He is asking of us. Cross' were made of solid wood and weighed over 300 pounds, and though Jesus did not literally mean for someone to carry around a large wooden cross, the picture that it painted comes out clear. Following Jesus is no easy task.
Though this sounds discouraging, there is always hope. Jesus also said that we could depend on Him to carry the load, and He technically already did. He literally carried a 300 pound wooden cross and He literally carried all of our sins, worries, and burdens when He hung out the cross.
So, even though the pull of culture and society gets stronger and stronger everyday and it is constantly taking us in the opposite way of the Word of God, this is a battle that we can never give up. It will never be an easy or an even a fair fight, but Jesus' words never expire. He has already won the battle and will win the war, we just have to take up our cross, our lives and follow Him.
