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Jesus is inviting you to follow him. Are you willing and ready to accept his Invitation? He is telling you to take up your cross and follow him. In the book of Luke 9:23, Jesus tells His disciples that whoever wants to be his disciple must deny himself take up his cross, and follow Jesus. To carry your cross simply means to put your trust in God even during the hard times amid the battles and storms in your life. As Christians, we strive to live according to the will of Jesus Christ by committing to following, his commandments.
We do not live as our culture tells us because this comes with temptation, persecution, and pain. Therefore, let us carry our cross for Christ, and He will always be with us each step we make. Christ rose again on the third day and defeated death, and if you love God and trust in him, you will undoubtedly be rewarded whether it is this life or the next.
The truth is that Jesus did not die on the cross to end our suffering if you look around the world in a lot of troubles and pain, natural disasters, starvation, abortion, crime, and other awful things. Jesus Christ became human and filled suffering and pain with His eternal presence. But, always remember that even in the darkest moments of our lives, or our daily struggles and temptations, Jesus is always there to help. As Christ willingly took up the cross for us, we must also take our cross for him.
Paul says, in Colossians 1:24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the church.” Again the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “By His passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive passion.” This means that when we are carrying our crosses, we share in Jesus Christ’s redemption of this world. Therefore, our suffering is not worthless. It is not a pain that lacks value. Trusting in God during struggles will be used to redeem the world.
As believers of Christ, we should not waste our suffering. It is beautiful and powerful. When you are carrying your cross, think of someone who is important to you. God tells us that He will use our crosses to build our loved ones and us as well. God always has a plan for all of us, and so, we must trust in him and mostly in the bad times. This is not easy, and our human nature tends to run away from this. However, we must always try to deny ourselves and trust in the will of God at all times. The book of Mark 8:35 tells us that “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
Taking up our cross typically means coming in term with the weaker and vulnerable parts of ourselves, identifying our embarrassing features, and acknowledging all these places that hurt us because our strengths and weaknesses are still part of us. Jesus Christ is inviting you to accompany him to the cross, the place where He is reconciling this lost world back to God. He wants us to be co-laborers with him, and this will only happen if we take up our cross and follow him. At the cross is where Jesus died, and he is showing us that to be reconciled with God, we must die to self. Our self needs to be denied. When we let Jesus into our lives, we no longer live for ourselves but live for Jesus, and this is when our self is denied. To be reconciled with God, you need to be righteous and not the righteous contrived by us but one that Jesus has bestowed upon us. Denying yourself by taking up your cross is mandatory if you are to walk on the right path with Christ.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article and may God bless you forever for taking up the cross. Have a wonderful day!
Originally posted 2022-01-01 00:00:00.
