Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matt. 16:24

Jesus is with His disciples and ask them “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?  They answered His questions with who the people were saying that He was.  The people thought that He was a reincarnation of one of the prophets. However, Peter received the revelation that He was indeed the long awaited Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  Caesarea Philippi was influence by Greek and Roman culture which included pagan temples and idols everywhere. Peter identified Jesus as the one that they had been waiting on to fulfill the promises of God, the only Living God. 

Jesus warns them not to tell anyone.  Why did He not want them to tell anyone?  The disciples had yet to fully understand the kind of Messiah that He came to be.  He did not come to overturn the government or become king.  He came to suffer, carry a cross and die for the sins of the world. Peter tried to protect Jesus from suffering but He had to endure to give us life, eternal life.

 The Life Application Bible says, “When Jesus used this picture of his followers taking up their crosses to follow him, the disciples knew what he meant.  Crucifixion was a common Roman method of execution, and condemned criminals had to carry their crosses through the streets to the execution site.  Following Jesus, therefore, meant a true commitment, the risk of death, and no turning back. The possibility of losing their lives was very real for the disciples as well as for Jesus. Real discipleship implies real commitment – pledging our whole existence to his service.  If we try to save our physical life from death, pain, or discomfort, we may risk losing eternal life. If we protect ourselves from the pain God calls us to suffer, we begin to die spiritually and emotionally. Our lives turn inward, and we lose our intended purpose.  When we give our life in service to Christ, however, we discover the real purpose of living.”

 Jesus knows that walking with Him comes with sacrifice and suffering. But He also promises in 2 Timothy 2:12 that, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:” If we surrender our life to Christ, to His will for our lives, we will have the victory and be able to spend eternity with Him.  But if we deny Christ, live our own way, we will still suffer and have not part with Him in eternity. 

 Taking up your cross takes real commitment to His will and His service. It is surrendering your will, your plans, and your life to God.  No, you do not become a robot or a zombie.  Surrender to God gives you new life and freedom.  You cast all of your cares on the One that knows all, sees all, and can work it all out.  Surrender takes trust but He is trustworthy.  God’s plans are to prosper us and not harm us, to give us hope and a future.  (Jer. 29:11) If we take up our cross and follow Jesus, we will be so much better for it because He alone knows the way we should go and He will help us carry the load.  Take up your cross today and follow Jesus.

 Be blessed.

 

I Surrender All, I Surrender All

All to Jesus I surrender

All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live

I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee
My blessed Savior
I surrender all

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

As I was growing up in church, I remember singing this song.  It was a song of surrender, giving up your will to follow the will of the Father – God.  You were singing this song to God and proclaiming your desire to give yourself over to God and allow Him to rule.  You were yielding to His control. 

Unfortunately, a great deal of people sang the song but really didn’t mean it.  My mother used to say that you shouldn’t sing the song if you didn’t mean it.  You could sing a lie just like you could tell a lie.  How could you surrender all if you didn’t even know all that God wanted you to surrender?  How could we possibly surrender if we didn’t know what to surrender or how to surrender?  And how can you surrender ALL, if you only know one thing that God is asking you to surrender?

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t always freely give all (or anything).  There were some things that I only let go of after being made to by God revealing the truth, being hurt, or God removing from my life.  Some things came easy and others didn’t.  Some relationships were dismissed easily and some were heart wrenching.  I didn’t want to surrender, I wanted to make it work.  Sometimes God asked me to go places, move places, leave jobs that I didn’t want to go to or move from.  He asked me to lay down my dreams, and take up His for my life.  The jobs I was seeking after were not His will for my life.

Even though at times the surrender came after many tears and much conversation with God, I have to admit (and much faster now with less resistance) that God’s love for me is so great that if He asks me to surrender, it is for my good.  It will work out for my good and for my betterment.  He has great and loving plans for my life.  If I just trust Him and surrender, it will work out for my good. 

I haven’t always wanted to surrender but God has worked miracles in my life when I have.  He has made ways, open doors, restore relationships, and removed those that were harmful to me and my family.  God has only had my best interest at heart.  I have been learning to trust His guidance and direction in all areas of my life.

Now, I can sing the song knowing that I am surrendering all that I know at the time to surrender.  I will never know all that God wants me to surrender in my life because He won’t show me all at once.  It would be too much for me to handle.  But as He reveals what I need to surrender (and I do), He will reveal to me what His plans are as I walk through the process of surrendering.  I am allowing Him to become my Savior in another area, one area at a time. 

I will always need to continually surrender to God on a daily basis.  He alone knows what I need to surrender, how I need to surrender, and why I need to surrender.  The more I trust and yield, the more blessed I become. 

The scripture says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” The more I trust Him, the more He will make my path straight.  Surrender comes as you trust God, He will surely make your path straight and take good care of you.

Be blessed.

Have Thine Own Way Lord, Have Thine Own Way

Have Thine own way Lord
Have Thine own way
Thou art the potter I am the clay
Mold me and make me after Thy will
While I am waiting yielded and still  by Adelaide A. Pollard (1906)

⁴ But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” Jer 18:4

Have you ever had plans for your day, week, or life and God asked you to change your plans? Maybe something came up that changed everything.  I remembered this hymn from growing up and it is a song of surrender to God and His plans for your life.    

Adelaide Pollard wrote this song after attending a prayer meeting in 1902.  She heard and old mother praying that it really didn’t matter what God did to them but that He have His way in their lives.  Now that is total surrender.  It didn’t matter to them what He did but as long as He had His will in their lives.  Adelaide went home and read Jeremiah 18 and Isaiah 64:8 about the potter.

Adelaide realized that we are clay in the hands of our Potter, which is the Lord. He molds us, shapes us, and works all the lumps and bumps out of us.  If we are marred, he can reshape us, break us down and start over again.  He is working things in and out of us so that we can be the vessel that He needs us to be to accomplish the work that He has called us to accomplish. 

How can I, the pot, tell the Potter how to form me?  I can try but it doesn’t work that way.  The Potter is the creator, the pot is the creation.  The Potter gets to decide the shape, height, weight, color, etc. of the creation not the other way around.  As I yield to the shaping of the Potter (God), I become who He wants me to be.  But if I buck or rebel, then I become marred, and He has to break me down and make me over. 

Marred means impair the appearance of: to disfigure; to ruin or diminish the perfection or wholeness of: SPOIL; blemish. The pot that the potter was shaping was marred, disfigured, ruined, had blemishes, or spoiled.  We come marred, hurt by past relationships, broken marriages, sickness and diseases, mentally and physically abused, depressed, lonely, cast aside, underappreciated, etc. All these things that can mar a vessel or a human life.  But the scripture says, that He forms it into another pot.  God lovingly adds His Spirit and remakes us into a vessel of honor to be used in His Kingdom.  You can be made over, you can become new. 2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

 All of this happens if we surrender to the Lord’s reshaping and remaking of our lives.  We have to lay down our agenda and allow Him to (as the song says), Have thing own way Lord, Have thine own Way. He wants to make us new and gives us an abundant life in Him. Let Him have His way and you will see that the Potter, Our loving God, know what He is doing.

Be blessed today.

 

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done…

Luke 11:1-2

 “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” ² So He said to them, “When you pray, say:  Our^[a] Father ^[b]in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus was praying and when He stopped, the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray.  He praised God and states that His Name is holy, sacred, greatly revered and honored.  His Name alone deserved to be reverenced.  He gave Him praise for who He is and His Name. 

Jesus then invokes God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.  God’s will is being done in heaven and He is calling for His will to be done here in the earth.  So how can God’s will be done in the earth?  He surely could cause it to be so but He often chooses to work through people. In order to do so, we must surrender to His will. 

Yes, the topic for this month is surrender.  Surrender means to : to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand; to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another; to give (oneself) over to something (such as an influence). God is not trying to make you a slave or one without thoughts or feelings.  He loves you and has a plan for your life that includes what is best for you.  Surrender to God is trusting that He knows best and has your best interest at heart.  He knows what you need and how to bring His will for your life to pass.

Let’s face it, we do not always know what is best for us.  Why do I say that? Because even though we are aware of how we feel and what we would like to accomplish in life, we cannot see down the road to what is ahead.  We see linear and God sees the entire picture, He knows the end from to the beginning.

Jesus surrendered His will to the will of the Father so that we could be saved.  He endured great humiliation and suffering so that we could gain eternal life.  If Jesus had to surrender, so do we.  God does not make us do His will but He lovingly invites us to surrender our will, our choices, and our agenda to His.  Why? Because He knows the plans that He has for you…Jer. 29:11 those plans are to prosper you and not harm you.  He wants to give us hope and a future.  His plans are good and not evil.  A surrendered life is a prosperous life.

You may not see it now, but surrender will lead you to a lasting and wonderful relationship with God.  It builds trust as you walk out laying down your will to pick up His.  His will for you is preparing you to bear fruit and eternity. 

God has often asked me to go another way, give up my agenda in my career, leave a relationship, move to another state, or forgive someone that has wronged me.  I must admit that my first response in most instances was surprise, uncertainty, and sometimes fear. I often could not see why God would ask me to move, give up my career goals, or ask me to do something that I never dreamed to do.  He was asking me to allow Him to stretch me beyond the comfortable place that I wanted to be.  He needed me to take risks and to trust Him.  He was building my faith and proving Himself to me. 

God knows what I need, what concerns me, what He created me to be, and how He wants to take me from one place to another (glory to glory).  What I have found out in these years of building a relationship with God is that He is very capable of completing what He has started in me.  He has a wonderful plan for me and if I cooperate, I will reap the benefits and so will those around me. 

God’s will is what is best for us if we will receive His instruction.  My pray is that God’s Kingdom will come and His will done in my life and the lives of those I love and know. I surrender, Lord, to you and you alone.

Don’t be afraid, He will not leave you nor forsake you (Hebrew 13:5).  Surrender, and let His will be done in your life.  Be blessed.