Take Up Your Cross and Follow

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. (Matthew 16:24 NIV)

We all want to Follow or become Friends with people we think are most interesting. One rich young man saw all the miracles Jesus performed and wanted to follow him. He asked what was needed and found the price of selling all his goods and giving the proceeds to the poor too high a price to pay. He chose not to follow. Simon Peter however accepted the invitation. He left his former life of fishing to lead others to Christ. Paul also left his former life to become an apostle. He declared “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”. Galatians 2:20. Have you chosen to follow him?

The Christian cross is not easy: it is a place for death of all our greed, lusts and misplaced affections. It is a place where the will of God is supreme, and ours suppressed. But it is also the only place with eternal life. What ill have you as yet to take to the cross? Give it up and make room for life.

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“Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to us—a crucified God—must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.” John Piper, (Don’t Waste Your Life)

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