Tuesday, September 27, 2016

No two crosses we bear are the same.

Luk_9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

'… The Lord says to us that this cross is ours, for we each receive from God our own particular cross. That is what we ought to bear. Although it is our cross, it nevertheless is closely connected with the cross of the Lord. '

P198 The Spiritual Man  - by Watchman Nee

This is truth.

We each have our own cross, to say otherwise is to lie.  I can look at you and imagine what your cross may be- there may be some obvious clues to what your cross may look like - outward afflictions and such, but I can't know truly what your cross is like to bear.  We each carry weight differently- mentally, emotionally and even physically.  If I carried twenty lbs of cat food and you carry the same twenty lbs of cat food and your muscles are stronger than mine, then it would be easier for you to carry than for me.  Emotionally something could affect you more than me, or me more than you- the gauge we go by is truly ours and no others. There can't be a true standard. Society tries to imagine their standards based upon majority reactions, and test results and other data they collect and they make it the norm so that people tend to forget how truly individual we are in so many ways. No two people can ever experience life in the same way simply because we are not ever the same- not ever.  Our crosses are different, but we ALL have a cross.

However, not all of us TAKE UP the cross that is ours.

Jesus said- IF…    IF any man -  meaning if WE choose to follow Him then we choose to DENY ourselves, we TAKE up our cross DAILY and we follow Him.

The cross is the life we choose to give up- the flesh life. We take up all the hardship of DENYING ourselves and there are plenty of them. We take up the cross of recognizing all the Spirit revealed flesh lusts in our lives and in the recognition we submit to the spirit denying those flesh lusts. Daily we will be allowed to see the SELF we must give up and that self is a terrible thing. We bear the cross of being UNLIKE those who live to the flesh.  There is persecution, there is ostracizing, there is awkwardness, there is misunderstanding, there is ridicule, there is death for those who choose to follow Christ. We take up a cross, we follow Christ not to receive ANY earthly reward whatsoever! We do NOT follow Christ to have a life of ease, to have a hotline to heaven for prayers to be answered in our favor.  When we choose to follow Christ we must comprehend that we are choosing a life that will be ANYTHING BUT EASY.

If we learn to deny ourselves, to take up our cross we understand that our HOPE is in CHRIST'S life, in the life HE PROMISES us, not in this life. 

We are taking up the cross of our Savior- His cross was one of self-denial, He lived solely for OTHERS and He died for others.

Please LORD, please.  My heart cries out to You, please let the Holy Spirit utter the things I can't begin to comprehend. Please.

All in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ OUR LORD now and forever and ever!

Please.

Thy will be done.


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