Luke 9:23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.
Sometimes the cares and weird ways of this world can back us into corners and cause us to feel like we are getting beat to death. Then we have a choice to make. Stay in the corner? Or come out fighting? It is our choice, but the challenge from Jesus is clear. TAKE UP YOUR CROSS, AND FOLLOW JESUS! I
In our world of apathy and indifference, we can be lulled into false security where we take the humility of the Bible and warp it into a lifestyle of weakness and no direction. Jesus always had a purpose and a direction in what He was doing and that defined focus is passed onto us through the Holy Spirit. You may wonder how? Let me explain...When we are born again we received the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is meant to take over our will and our life purpose. He is called our comforter and our strength. With the Holy Spirit in our life, we have the power to live a life of purpose and power and "taking up our cross" is an outflow of that life purpose. For Jesus to say that we must give up our way and follow Him means ''there's a chance" we might not want to follow Him, so we take "option 2." Option 2 is not the best option because that is a life purpose that is centered on my flawed wants and needs of me. Ole prideful me, selfish me, lazy me, or whatever me is now in charge, and I cannot figure out why I am not living an abundant life and making an impact on the kingdom.
When we choose to go "our own way" we make a choice of compromise. Compromising our daily walk, compromising our friendships, compromising our service, compromising our impact, compromising everything. To keep us here we have to change our Holy Spirit-filled direction of purpose and passion into a direction that is filled with statements like "Oh I don't want to offend anyone, so I won't share the whole truth...WE SETTLE! We pull up a chair and wish things were different in almost every area of life, but we sit in that chair and just TALK. Jesus did not call us to just think about life, but He called us to live life to the fullest. That fullest is powered by the Holy Spirit and that power compels us to "take up our cross and follow Jesus."
Jesus has given us the power and the passion to live a life of purpose if we will just trust Him to make it happen. When Jesus challenged His disciples in Luke 9:23, He was also challenging us, so WHY SETTLE? There is no good reason to settle, so just search your heart for what to do and I am convinced that the Holy Spirit, who is now in charge, will give you the direction you need. This is The Word on the Street!
The Pilgrimage Continues...
David Warren
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