Take Up Your Cross

By Tosin Lawal

Devotional Reading: Instructing his disciples and the crowd, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, said, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34, HCSB)

It is essential to note that every believer in Christ has been called to be a disciple because discipleship is the pathway to living the life of Jesus and expressing the life of God in us here on earth. Discipleship is the pathway to becoming the best that God ordained for us to be. However, as a disciple, Jesus is saying that there are responsibilities that we must own up to if we are truly His followers.

These responsibilities involve denying ourselves and taking up our crosses, which we must do daily.
The phrase “take up your cross” is a symbolic statement that Jesus used. It represents the place where Jesus was nailed, and it was His destiny that involved suffering, which was the bitter part of God’s plan for His life. However, after the painful part, the redemption of humanity from the dominion of sin and the devil was achieved.

A cross is a place of avoidable shame, but avoiding that shame means thwarting God’s plan for our lives. Jesus could have called legions of angels on those who came to arrest him and avoided the cross, but by his own choice, he willingly endured the shame of the cross so that God’s plan could be actualized.

He created those who killed him, yet he did not fight them. Humanly speaking, he was killed unjustly, but spiritually, in the plan and purpose of God for him and humanity, he had to go to the cross. Without dying, God’s plan could not be fulfilled.

There is always a bitter part to fulfilling God’s plan for each of us. It often involves doing sacrificial things that are not convenient or comfortable. As disciples of Jesus, taking up our crosses means embracing the bitter part of God’s plan for our lives.

However, that bitter part leads to a joyous end. Jesus embraced that painful part, which involved spending nights in prayer, being abused, persecuted, mocked, misunderstood, beaten, shamed, and shamefully killed on the cross even with criminals.

Taking up our crosses daily is a life of total surrender in obedience to all of God’s instructions for our lives. It is a life where our power to choose is dead, and we only do whatever God says, regardless of whether it is convenient or not. Are you embracing the totality of God’s plan for your life?

Prayer and Confession
Jesus, I am ready to take up my cross daily and to follow in obedience to your ways. Amen!

Further Readings: Matthew 10:37-39, 2 Corinthians 11:1-33