Åґ☂ ◎ḟ ʟ☤√ḯη❡ #41 : "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." (Luke 9:23).
Ѧ℘☺﹩☂◎łḯ¢ €ϰ℘øüηḓ : The Cross is a symbol of death. Many Christians who want to go up spiritually do not realise that they need to die to self life in order to gain the spiritual life of God. Many many people are always ready to receive the loaves that Jesus supplies to their soul supernaturally, but are not ready to die to their self life and supply their loaves sacrificially to Jesus in order for Him to multiply and make it a blessing to others around them (John 6:5-14). True followers of Jesus are those who will sacrificially deny their self life in exchange for the will of God to be fulfilled through them.
God has custom designed a cross for each and every one of us which only we can carry. To receive blessings from God and feed it on ourself is no spirituality at all. It is selfishness, is'nt it? Those believers who continue to live like this will become spiritually dry after a period of time, because the Bible says that those who water others will themselves be watered (Prov 11:25). The more we look outward through the love of God, the more God is able to work freely through us. The more we feed to ourself, the less God is able to work in us. God's cross of denying our self will lead us ultimately to a heavenly life of abundance and a satisfaction of soul that cannot be received anywhere in the entire universe. Some times people feed in to their self and end up in hardship, chaos and suffering, but they try to pacify their conscience saying that these are the cross that God has given them to carry. These type of thinking are follies of deceit and utter foolishness that the devil has given to make people useless spiritually. See what the great reformer Martin Luther has told regarding such things, “No man ought to lay a cross upon himself, or to adopt tribulation, as is done in popedom; but if a cross or tribulation come upon him, then let him suffer it patiently, and know that it is good and profitable for him.”
We ought to be careful to evaluate the things we go through in our lives. We should first check whether we have given our self life to God and have started to embrace the will of God for our lives first. The trials that comes to us will be something that will come with the availability of grace to face it and come through it victoriously for the Glory of God. Even Jesus faced His cross with the grace of God and overcame death victoriously (Heb 2:9), exactly as He is our example we should also learn that we can only carry our cross through the grace of God only (1 Peter 2:21). We will never be able to carry our cross of denying our self life with our own strength, if we are able to do it then we are not in God's will but in our self will. When we carry ourselves on, we cannot go very far spiritually. But when God starts to carry us with His power, we can go on and on and on but will feel that we have done nothing by ourselves. Carrying the cross is not a boring thing as religious people think usually. But it will be a joyful thing because the grace of God will be carrying us through and through. If you have been walking in a besetting sin for a long time without any change which you are desiring, or have been allowed by God to fight through a medical condition which you might have felt as hopeless situation, or have been enticed by a wordly frienship which has been pulling you away from the Lord, or even a lucrative job offer which might have caused you to say no to the voice of the Lord which has been telling you to do His ministry, now you can tell it all to the Lord and ask Him to help you to carry the cross of denying your self life in exchange for the will of God to be done. God is willing to give His mighty grace to all those who humbly come to Him telling their true inability to walk in the will of God. Shout "Grace, Grace, Grace to your mountains" that stands against you to block you from fulfilling the will of God for your life (Zech 4:7). When you are willing, God is telling that it is thrilling to make a living by His grace. GOD LOVES YOU TO CARRY YOUR CROSS BECAUSE HE KNOWS HOW BLESSED AND PROFITABLE YOU CAN BECOME AND BE A GOOD BLESSING TO MANY PEOPLE THROUGH YOUR LIFE.
mUcH BlEsSiNgS....
