Carry your Cross

Call To Prayer 

Title: Carry Your Cross 

By: Njuacha Hubert 

Date: 21.06.2024 

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. Mathew 16: 24-25 

The reason why Jesus had to carry a cross is not because he was overpowered by those who wanted His death but simply because He submitted to the will of God who had already ordained for Him to die on the cross. Therefore, carrying your cross has to do with suffering as a result of obedience to God. Feeling pain, discomfort, shame and undesirable feelings while doing the will of God (often it’s just in the beginning but as God helps you it’s replaced with joy). 

The cross is an important part of the believer’s life. However, not every suffering is your cross. Nonetheless, you will attract grace if you act rightly in any suffering. For instance, if you are imprisoned for stealing you can’t say you are carrying your cross nonetheless if you repent and humble yourself then you attract grace. So, there are many such sufferings which come as a result of our misdeeds. So again, your cross is precisely, suffering, though you’re innocent. For example, being persecuted because of your faith or persevering in doing good. Going out of your comfort zone to do God’s bidding.  

We need to understand that God does not give you a cross to carry without providing access to sufficient power to carry it (1 Corinthians 10:13, John 1:12, Matthew 12:50). In fact this is the very reason we are blessed in Christ. Because in Christ we have received not just forgiveness of sins but have access to power to do God’s will (John 15:4-8). Principally our hearts have been transformed from a heart that is disobedient to God to one that desires to do His will (Ezekiel 36:26).  

 The cross leads to death but it does not end there. There is a resurrection that follows; the Glory. So, in effect, the cross is Jesus granting us an opportunity to share in His glory. Yet He provides the strength. Just as Abraham said to Isaac “God will provide” (Genesis 22:8) but we provide the “Yes to God’s will”. This is not to undermine the suffering of the cross yet He said “My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30) and we live by faith. So, if you see your strength, you will fail but if you see His power at work in you, it is easy just as He says it is and even when feelings are behind truth in time we remain in faith until it becomes our reality.  

Living by faith you will realize that the cycle of cross, death(suffering) and resurrection(glory) will occur many times in this life even before the final resurrection of all saints (1 Peter 5:10, Matthew 6:33).  

Prayer Point:  

Let’s thank Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins and releasing forgiveness and power to enable us to manifest as sons of God if we believe.