01-09-12 "Sacrifice; God's Pathway to Fruitfulness" Luke 9:23-27

The passage I read was Luke 9:23-27

You can find that passage here:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+9%3A23-27&version=NIV

The verse that most stood out to me:

²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

As I reflect:

This passage is a daily reminder to me of who I am in Christ.  It reminds me where my values ought to be.  I have to examine myself on a regular basis and be sure not to wrap the word around my will, but rather wrap myself around the word.  This word tells me that I have a cross to take up daily.  It says I need to deny myself and not be ashamed of walking with Jesus.   This is easier said than done sometimes.

I think about it this way: To take up and carry a cross is to carry something of great weight and discomfort, often even painful.  In the same way it can be very uncomfortable and even a burden to walk with Christ in a world that looks down on His followers as weak, ignorant, hypocrites that had to make up a God to save them because they are so pathetic.  It is hard to be viewed in this way.  I don’t hang my head low over it, but it is none the less something that I daily have to struggle against.

 I also daily chose to struggle against my flesh.  I have to deny my flesh.  I have to turn away from old ways every day.  It does get easier to do this over time, but it never ceases to be a daily struggle.  It is part of the carrying of my daily cross. 

Now, I want to be clear.  I am in no way saying that Christianity is just one huge lump of lonesome sorrow and hardship that we crazy few choose to throw ourselves into.  That’s not the case.  What I am saying is that it takes all you’ve got and then some.  I don’t plant seeds reluctantly in my life.  Nor do I reluctantly give up the deeds of my old sin nature, but rather I count them a sacrifice as investment on a better pathway.  I don’t count carrying a cross as a reason for sorrow, any more than an athlete counts painful training as a means to looking forward to failure.  And when I say that I die to myself daily, it doesn’t mean that I am not greatly blessed.  It means that I realized long ago that my ways led to death and His ways lead to life.  So, though the painted picture can seem somewhat morbid and almost emo, I am not in mourning or ashamed in any way of the hardships that accompany being a disciple of Christ.  Rather I am thankful for the opportunity to follow, and for the Helper that guides me down the path to victory.  I am thankful for each hardship that strengthens me along the way.  I am thankful for each time I stumble, because it offers me the opportunity to learn how to better lean on Christ and get back up.  And I am in no way ashamed of the blood that saved my soul from an eternal separation from God… Even when others think I must be ignorant to believe it. 

My response to the Lord:

Dear God, I desperately need your help daily to carry this cross, die to myself, and follow you.  It is something I simply can’t do of myself.  I must have your Holy Spirit reaching in to break all the chains and shackles, hold me up, and encourage me to take each next step.  It’s hard, but I am so very thankful that Jesus and many others came before me to show that it can be done.  I am also thankful for your mercy, because I often fail.  I am thankful for your grace, because you bless me and encourage me when all others would curse me.  By my actions and by my words may you be glorified and may I never be ashamed of You, Your work in me, and the gospel message that I am to bring to others.  In Jesus’ name.