Take up your cross

[pg-91]

Hi all!

I would like to ask you about the following verse, what do you think it means regarding our daily life? Besides obeying,avoiding sins or things like that?

Luke 9:23, Then Jesus said to all of them, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

Gyula

[cheekie3]

Gyula -

This is a very good Post:

Hi all!

I would like to ask you about the following verse, what do you think it means regarding our daily life? Besides obeying,avoiding sins or things like that?

Luke 9:23, Then Jesus said to all of them, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

Gyula

To me, it is all about denying 'self', in the way Jesus did not do His Will but the Will of His Father.

I do not believe Our Heavenly Father enables any of us to be a help to others, if we do not first put aside our own desires to do what we want. We must ask and want to do what He wants us to do - before He equips us to be His Living Witnesses, and do His Will here on Earth.

I often ignore insults, accusations, threats, false accusations, etc; as I want to get to the root cause of a particular issue or problem impacting one or more people - as I know if I start to defend myself, or give as good as I get, it leads to nothing but trouble. We should look at the fruit in the lives of others, in order to ascertain if they be good or bad - then we can ask Him to show us the root cause of the problem, and ask for His Wisdom in order to get to the solution.

It is not easy to deny 'self' - but it is the only way to have 'good success' in Him by His Holy Spirit according to The Will of Our Heavenly Father.

What do you think this Scripture is about - and what do you think our cross is.

Are we not to put everything secondary behind 'doing the Will of the One who sent us' - which should be the prime directive in all our lives.

I pray that you will get the answers you are looking for with this Post.

Kind Regards.

George

[AwesomeSavior]

Gyula:

For me, it has meant undergoing the most radical change I never could have imagined, of being "ground to powder" (Matthew 21:44 & Luke 20:18) and undergoing incredible chastening (Proverbs 13:24 & Hebrews 12:6 & Revelation 3:19), to sometimes being at my "wits end" (Psalm 107:27).

When I think of what Jesus went through physically with His beatings and the Cross, I feel like at times I deal with in the spirit in "dying daily" (1 Corinthians 15:51 and your verse, Luke 9:23).

However, the payoff is "great joy" (Luke 2:10), which He causes me to also experience daily. Like Ray said, getting saved is the most difficult experience anyone will ever face, but wow, Wow, WOW. The rejoicing is tremendous! Rejoice... again I say Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4). God is The Master   

Dean

[Dave in Tenn]

Hi Gyula.  It might be helpful to know that the word "deny" which his followers will do to themselves is the same word in Greek used when The Lord said Peter would deny Him three times, and he did.  Maybe that will give you some sense of what "Denying one's self" means.

Here it is in the CLV:

Luk 9:23  Now He said to all, "If anyone is wanting to come after Me, let him disown himself and pick up his cross daily and follow Me."

I noticed this reading a little ahead (but in Luke's account in chapter 9) :

Luk 9:44  You be laying up these sayings in your ears, for the Son of Mankind is about to be given up into the hands of men."
Luk 9:45  Yet they were ignorant of this declaration, and it was screened from them, that they may not be sensing it, and they feared to ask Him concerning this declaration."

WE understand after the fact (and the writers did when it was written) that when Jesus mentioned "taking up your cross" He had a concrete example yet to show them.  But at the time of this saying, they didn't know and still thought His kingdom was to be a physical one.  I think that's why they argued over who was to be greater.  His answer to them is also about "denying" one's self and taking up the cross.  It's probable they understood the "cross" reference, but certainly didn't know He was going to take up His own. 

So think about His going to the cross, taking it up and denying/disowning/renouncing Himself.  "Not my will, but Thine be done".

Anyway, just some more to think on.

And just for encouragement--we are all going to take up our crosses and follow Him.  He died and was raised from the dead.  So will we all.   



   

[pg-91]

Thank you very much for your thoughts Dave, Dean and George! There are a lot of things to think about indeed.

Take up our cross daily maybe means, that we should be ready to take all the consequences for following Christ?

This "disown" word is interesting. Somehow it shows me again that God takes responsibility for everything and that my life doesn't belong to me. But, still there are a lot of questions in me how to live the daily life. I mean it's so hard to know, at least for me the steps till God's will will be done.

Dean, could you explain to me somehow if possible, the joy you are experiencing daily? I'm very interested in that.

Gyula

[AwesomeSavior]

Gyula:

God is causing me to undergo various trials, including health challenges and upcoming economic challenges for my family. I see things coming to a head shortly, in many different ways. In spite of these trials, the Father has been revealing to me, through Scripture and the testimony of others and my own experiences, His incredible joy that comes after these fiery trials, of pruning my carnal mind and continuing to endure, and also realizing that this joy will one day last FOREVERMORE! These trials are difficult, but He reminds me that they are a test! I experience great joy in worshipping The Father and The Son, usually afterwards. They cause me to talk to them quite a bit, and that is a blessing to "cast my cares upon Him, for He cares for us" (1 Peter 5:7). It is a source of great comfort and encouragement.

God has also caused me to consider and realize that I am at the very top of the "base things of the world, and things which are despised..." (1 Corinthians 1:28). I have been forgiven MUCH (Luke 7:47), and He recently has revealed that to me in a more concrete way. As a result, I am and will be forgiving others MUCH, which is and will be a very joyful experience, as God loves to show mercy! (Ephesians 2:4). 

God is dealing with me on a lot of different levels, which involve both pain (our cross) and His "oil of gladness"! (Psalm 45:7 & Hebrews 1:9). He is so complex.

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (Romans 11:33)

I hope that helps you a little bit. We are His workmanship, and it's been quite a journey already. God Bless. Take care.

Dean

[pg-91]

Thank you very much Dean, for your detailed answer and examples!

God Bless.

Gyula