Deny myself and take up my cross daily

We can make the decision every day to do this. To start out the day with a quiet time with God, to give yourself to Him. We have to keep doing throughout the day though. The more willing we are to give ourselves to God, the more often Satan is going to try to get us to give up, be frustrated, get angry and quit. Not even daily do I need to do this, but hourly. I need to keep my mind on God at ALL times.
Pray without ceasing.
Hard stuff.
It shouldn’t be. I love God. I don’t want to follow Satan. It’s easy to do… I’ll just set this cross right here for a bit while I browse the internet… I don’t need to carry my cross to the mall with me, to hang out with my friends…
It’s especially easy to give into that temptation when our human selves aren’t entirely thrilled about God’s plans so far as they have been revealed. Which is the boat I seem to be finding myself in. What do I do? Read Jeremiah. I have a feeling I’m going to be identifying with him a LOT in the coming years. That is not the most comforting thing in the world, if you know Jeremiah’s story… But it is a comfort that he followed. When things got desperate for him, he cried out to God. God spoke to him.
Anyways, yes. Those are a few of my realizations regarding this. Another is that we really should pray for each other for the strength, courage, determination, and love to follow through on this goal regularly. So, that is something I will start doing for you all.

“We are here to help one another along life's journey.”
 ~William Bennett

We talked for a little bit about this last night at youth group. Taking up my cross not only means following Jesus. It means to be willing to (and to actually) subject yourself to ridicule and abuse from those around you who don’t understand. It’s to do something that may give you pain but will also give you more joy at doing what you are supposed to be doing. When Jesus took up his cross, he was fulfilling his destiny, why he was originally put on this earth. He didn’t want to do it, he could have backed out, asking to be spared this fate, but he didn’t. He knew what he was supposed to do, and despite the pain, torture, and ridicule, he did it.