Taking Up Your Cross Daily

"Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God'” (Luke 9:23-27).

“Take up your cross.” The cross is not an unbearable task, a thorn in the flesh, or something unpleasant. The cross is an instrument of shameful, painful execution. Taking up your cross is voluntary capital punishment. It is a choice we must make. It is willingness to die in shame for the sake of Jesus. We could get out of dying if we were ashamed of Christ, but we would lose our life by saving it that way.

We are to take up this cross daily. Since I did not die yesterday, I must choose to get dressed with the instrument of my own execution again today and every day following.

Here are two parallel verses:

"In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…" (2 Timothy 3:12).

"In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood" (Hebrews 12:4).

Do you want to be godly so bad that you will suffer persecution for it? Do you want to resist sin until you are killed for resisting it? Do you want to be unashamed of Jesus?

Each morning, we should pray for grace to be godly, unashamed, and able to resist sin. Each morning, that is the way we take up the cross.

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