Jesus said:

Matt 16:24

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
NIV

But what does take up his cross mean? Does a person have to be crucified to follow Christ? Yes and no. Please allow me to explain what I mean.

I believe that means that we cannot depend on anything but God. As a human Jesus was fought, punished, beaten, crucified and died but He depended on what God had told Him. And He rose from the grave on the third day just as promised.

So each of us have been told to do the same thing. People may not think that you should do something or that you should be doing something different but this is God’s world and He calls the shots. Not them!

And in this world it’s not easy to follow God. Human people, even Christians, think that everything is up to them and so they decide what should and should not be done and if you are doing a good job. Well surprise! It’s not up to them! It’s up to God.

We’re not here to do what we want. We’re here to do what God wants.

Did there have to be an Earth? No, God made it.

Did there have to be people? No, God made them.

So it’s His World.

Will everything happen as planned? If He planned it then Yes, but if humans planned it then No.

That bothered Jesus. In the NIV translation of the Bible Jesus said 6 times: “how long do I have to stay with you?” So it’s easy to see that He was fed up but as long as He was here He talked & taught about God because that’s why He was here.

And now He lives in us so our job is no different now than His was then. We’re here for Him so we must take up our cross meaning that He will make happen what needs to happen so we must be satisfied with what happens even if others are not.

Deny yourself and take up your cross. Jesus did!