Taking Up Our Cross

Today I was spending some time preparing a bible study and came across the verse "whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27). This verse is not something that is new to me and actually something that I have used in talking and encouraging others with. When I was; however, asked the question of what it means to take up my cross I was in shock at how long and confusing of an answer I attempted at providing. Later on in the chapter, Jesus continues to describe the cost of discipleship in saying, "so therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33).

The first circumstance I was convicted in would be in not knowing or understanding what the verse really means when I use it and refer to it so often. I got lost in what it meant to have a cross....I thought "Is Jesus telling me to take up my own sin? No...definitely not it" "What is Jesus trying to tell me I need to be burdened with?" Thinking and reading more and more of the scripture, Jesus is emphasizing the gospel here....that He died for my sin, bearing the cross, so that I could have eternal and true life with Him! Jesus is NOT telling me I need to live in a life of burden or trapped in my own sin but that I need to be living a life of understanding the cross...understanding that if I'm not renouncing everything in my life for Him, taking up my cross, then I'm not following Him and am not even able to be a disciple if I'm stuck in my own selfish ways and living for myself rather than Him.

I went back to thinking of gospel "but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by by His blood, much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God......More than that, we we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:8~11).

Okay, so here's the basic points I think I am learning. I am a sinner but since God loves me He sent His son to die for me so that by His grace I may be saved from an eternity of separation from God. I do not have to feel burdened by this....God doesn't want that...He wants me. He wants all of me, meaning that in order for Him to have that, I need to give up all of my selfish desires, wants, needs, material things, love for things that are not of eternity, etc. etc. Living for God means living for God. It does not mean giving Him half of me, or taking up part of His gospel, or renouncing part of my life...but everything. After all, if God wants me....the most perfect God wants the dirtiest of sinners, me, why wouldn't I want to give Him all of me?...there's no better love than that!