Oh no thanks, I can do it..
Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
What is the heaviest load you bear? Mine is mental stress, and the anxiety and depression that are fed from it. If I were to divulge my testimony, it would be full of the stresses of life that many of us fall under. Pride could really be the topic heading under which stress falls though, because pride will lead you to believe that you are to bear the weight of that cross. Christ tells us when we feel those loads are too heavy, to give them to Him in Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Christ is offering to carry our cross for us, and even as He says in Luke 9:23, we are to give it to Him DAILY. The weight of our cross, whatever it may be, we cannot shoulder for six days a week and give it to Him on Sunday mornings.
The true meaning in Luke 9:23 is much deeper, and our cross is none to compare to Christ’s carrying the weight of our sin. Christ was speaking to the apostles and what they must endure as followers of Him. 1 Peter 4:16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. The apostle Paul speaks of denying himself and dying daily for Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:31. We will suffer as Christians for we are not of this world, and the world is against us recognizing that. What I consistently beg you to do, is to humble yourself before God. That denial of pride, leads to forgiveness of sin, and leads to Him shouldering the load we cannot bear. The dying of yourself should come every day through time spent with Him in prayer and His Word. We are not designed to live our life as the world presses us to live in the instant gratification and pressures of today. The only way to release those daily burdens is through daily time with the One whom has already bore the heaviest Cross for you.
oneminuteministry 