Take Up Your Cross

Are you striving to live your life for Him?  Are you willing to take the next step?


As I have mentioned before, we often get too comfortable in our walk with the Lord.  We like where we're at, and often forget to keep strengthening our relationship with Him.  We know of His love for us, and know He will be right there waiting when we need Him, but we often forget that we need Him in the good times as well as the bad.  Now that you have recognized this so called comfort zone that we get locked into, I challenge you to break the trend and fight your way out of it.  Examine your life, realize when you are entering the comfort zone and ask God to enlighten and strengthen you.


In order to further our walk with Him, we literally must deny ourselves; our bodies and our desires are of this world, and we must learn what it is to lay down the things we love for a Savior we love much more.  We have to be willing to give up a little in order to gain unfathomably more.  We are mere humans, not even close to capable of saving ourselves; we must accept this fact and rely on our Savior to do the saving. It says in Mark that whoever loses their life for Christ will save it; it doesn't necessarily mean we have to die defending our beliefs, but many a Christian have died spreading His love around the world. 


It could simply mean taking the time to have a conversation with a friend about who this God is that you are living for, and why it is so important to you;  giving up your comfort level and having a potentially tough and emotional conversation is what it means to pick up your cross and lose this worldly life for Christ's sake.  It could be as simple as asking a non-believing friend, family member, or even a parent to attend church with you; inviting them to ask questions, allowing you to break down the walls of judgement they may have experienced in the past, and letting them see a glimpse of Jesus through you.  It is not always easy, but we must keep in mind that He gave His life on a cross so that we might live.  


Daily Verse:


Then He said to them all: “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." ~ Luke 9:23-24


There are many ways to lay down this life for Him, and I challenge you to find more and more.  We must continuously remind ourselves of not only who we are, but Whose we are.  Don't let another day pass in the comfort zone, pick up that cross, lay down your life for the One who gave it all!