Deny myself and take up my cross daily

Hey friends! Wanting to “take up my cross daily” (Luke 9) along with you, I add content to the site www.ariskaday.org to help people learn how to take risks, big and small, towards becoming Christ-like. One day it might be taking food to a neighbor, another day might be learning better to pray, etc. It is a community dedicated to taking meaningful challenges! Come join the daily blog email!

Following Him together,

Ryan

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

wow that’s deep. I have the responsibility of my own cross that I must bear. More than anything it puzzles me why God even trusts me to bear anything… I dunno The fact that He has confidence in my ability to daily endure gives me a sort of confidence in myself. That He trusts me to go through and yet not let go of His hand encourages me in those times when I feel like I can no longer endure. It’s good to know that He knows me better than I know myself.

You know, it wouldn’t be so bad if the goal was to deny myself and take up my cross periodically, or monthly, or weekly even, but DAILY; that’s a challenge. Everyday we’re all faced with a choice. Everyday I’m gonna choose to forget about myself, strap up and press on; Every friggin’ day…

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.