Dying To Our Own Will
What does it mean to take up our cross?
My experience as a Christian, or “Christ Follower”, has been one of ups and downs.
I’ve gone through peaks and valleys of feeling like I have it all together one moment, only to surrender that feeling to another of feeling like I’m totally clueless and don’t understand anything about the Bible.
Through this misdirection, misunderstanding, and confusion, I’ve concluded that if I sincerely want to know the truth, I cannot simply lean on the understanding of myself or someone else’s interpretation of Jesus’ words.
I have to dig into the text. I have to search the word of God in order to not only find meaning, but to place it in it’s correct context.
The problem with today’s Christianity is that sometimes we just try to place square pegs in round holes.
So many churches in today’s age try to come up with an attractive message that will appeal to the masses. The problem is that the motive is sometimes tainted.
It becomes about appeal, rather than truth.
Instead of being focused on doing the will of God and presenting a true representation of Jesus, church leaders get sucked into a different motivation.
One that requires their attention in other areas.
For example, some churches try to focus on numbers, instead of service to others.
They want to get as many people as possible into their doors, rather than deploy as many people as possible into the community to help a cause.
This does not line up with Jesus’ teaching on being a servant.
Jesus said that even the Son of Man came to be a servant, and to give his life as a ransom to many (Mark 10:45).
Jesus came and he taught and he served. He really went against the grain when it came to cultural norms in that time.
Today’s churches seem to be trying to align with cultural attitudes. Where Jesus instructed to “take up your cross and follow me”, today’s church seems to say, “just believe and be blessed by God”.
Sometimes the message seems like it requires no action.
Last time I checked, dying to your own will, and surrendering to God’s will, no matter the cost, is action.
Whatever we selfishly want, is now prisoner to our greater will for God’s will.
To truly desire God’s will for our life, it requires us to sacrifice our own personal will and to “take up our cross”.
This means that we will follow God’s will without regard to our own desire for the most part.
This is heavy. God literally calls us to become uncomfortable.
When Jesus says “take up your cross”, he basically says regardless of the difficulty, struggles, or suffering, follow him.
Jesus knew that serving other people was the will of God. He was a living sacrifice who died for the sins of many, so that they could have eternal life in Heaven.
Jesus died for the very people that hammered nails into his body. As he was dying on the cross, he pleaded to God to forgive the men that did this to him, “for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Is anyone today this gracious?
I think we’re really quick to hold grudges, but I think we’re very slow to forgive. In fact, when we get angry at someone, don’t we basically make them earn our forgiveness?
This is the polar opposite of Jesus. The people that opposed Jesus had no desire to apologize. They weren’t sorry. They didn’t even want the forgiveness that their hearts needed.
In addition to this, the people that aren’t forgiving others seem to be other Christians. We all seem to have this notion that we deserve something extra.
But Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice so that we could have the greatest gift imaginable.
Just because we have no capacity to understand that experience, does not mean that we are not eternally blessed.
I understand that not everyone believes in God, and that there are people that believe in God without believing in Jesus.
Maybe some people don’t feel like this applies to them at all.
For the believers reading, we have to die to our will if we truly want to be the man or woman that God created us to be.
It’s a tough concept and reality, but I think Jesus is pretty clear. Pursuing something else in place of God (i.e. sex, money, drugs, personal recognition) is sin.
That is to say if any of our accomplishments or gain here on earth exceeds our desire to follow God, we’ve failed.
If we’re being honest, we’ve all failed in this area. We just have to get back up and put our focus back on the prize (Philippians 3:14).
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