Carry Your Cross and Follow Me

Call To Prayer 

Title: Carry Your Cross and Follow Me 

Date: 26/11/2022 

By: Njuacha Hubert 

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Mathew 16:24 

– Our opening verse is starts with “if anyone would come after me”. What this tells us is that Jesus is about to give us the condition to come after Him. The condition to follow Him. The condition to be called His own. Jesus says that “let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. Denying self and carrying your cross are two things that must be done to follow Jesus. Denying self means that you are no longer lord of your life. You are not god over yourself but submit your will to the most high God. Denying yourself means seeking to glorify God not yourself. Some teachers call it; dying to self. Carrying up your cross means we embrace the trials He sends our way. That insult you take and don’t retaliate, that lonely waiting season you experience, persecution etc. Brothers and sisters believing in Jesus can’t be separated from doing the will of the father. Jesus said in Mathew 7: 21-23 

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ 

The last phrase in the above says workers of lawlessness means someone who does what He likes. He is not submitted under the authority of God. But as a follower of Jesus, we are submitted to Jesus. We have assignments to fulfil. We are not just living to satisfy our flesh and die. 

The amazing thing about all this is God is not calling you to work for free. There is a reward for every single sweat, every single penny invested in the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ not only died to save us but also through His death modeled the faithfulness of God in rewarding every obedience to Him. Philippians 2:8-10  

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth 

There is no glory without a cross. There is no victory without a fight. Jesus says we will be rewarded according to what we have done (Mathew 27). And don’t forget that God starts already to bless our obedience even here on earth (Proverbs 11:31).  

Prayer Point:  

Let’s thank God for His word today. Let’s pray for the grace to die to self and take up our cross to follow Jesus.