Daily Scripture
‘And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.’
Luke 9:23-24
Daily Devotion
We live in a wonderful time of convenience and comfort. We are living in an age where we have instant access to information, entertainment, pleasure, and self-gratification. Our lives are filled with excesses that no one could have ever imagined possible just a few short years ago. Luke 9:23-24 goes against the grain of today’s culture of self-satisfaction, self-love, and self-devotion.
If we are honest about this, we must admit that Jesus’ message in Luke 9 is one that will not have broad appeal in today’s society. Denying ourselves is not something that many people are used to, nor do they want to do. It is in our sinful nature to be selfish. We all have a default “me first” attitude. It starts early - one of the first words we learned was “Mine!” and we never outgrow it. Our society cultivates it, advertises it to us, glorifies the excessive lifestyle as one worth living. People chase the material things of life trying pointlessly to fill their emptiness.
When we choose to follow Christ, we must give up those things that seem “natural” and go against our very nature. When we deny ourselves, we choose to put away the things we would ordinarily choose for ourselves. We put what God requires over our own desires. We must be intentional to deny ourselves of anything that conflicts with His plan for our lives – God does not want any competition. Dying to self is a must to absolutely surrender to Him.
The second part of this is to take up your cross daily. Many people look at this as if it is a burden. You have heard people talk about an ailment or a problem as “that’s my cross to bear.” Taking up our cross is not about reliance on our own strength or what we can do, but rather all about reliance on what Christ has already done. In Jesus’s day, the cross was a symbol of death but because of what our savior did for us on the cross it is now a symbol of grace, atonement, forgiveness, and love. It definitely should not be looked at as a burden.
We are not to only take up our cross on Sunday but must do it each and every day. Sin is evil and should be killed daily. We must die to ourselves every day because we know we will continuously fail and He knows it too, but thankfully he has already forgiven us for it.
He leads. We follow. That is it.
Although the call to take up our cross is tough, the reward is matchless. Nothing in this world is worth passing up eternal life.
“Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you for the joy and privilege of following you. We praise you for eternal life that is found in you. Help us to live this life full in you, dead to ourselves and alive in Christ. Help this be our story today, tomorrow and the next day according to you word in Luke 9. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen”
Gary Jones