I’ve started to wonder what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus. I have heard the line of scripture many times, but I have never really stopped to try to understand what that means. I heard the answer the other day as I was getting ready for bed and it was renewably so clear to me. The cross Jesus talks about is not the relic of a cross, the carved wood image. It is what the cross represents.

The cross had two purposes. First was to fulfill the purpose of God. Jesus knew the cross He bore; He walked into His own undoing willingly. The night before Judas approached Jesus with the intention of betrayal Jesus had taken a few of His disciples and asked them to wait while He prayed. You know it was very late because the disciples could not stay awake. Jesus had a last-minute torment and wanted His closest friends to be with Him. I imagine he was talking to God with such anguish in his heart- fleshly fear crowding His determination. Jesus knew there would be lashes, and scorn, and unimaginable pain. I wonder if Jesus pleaded with his Father for another way to fulfill the will of God. He would be asking for strength and renewing his commitment to the Almighty who destined His plan for Jesus as we all have destined plans. No matter what Jesus had prayed about that night, He walked into the arms of Judas the betrayer willingly. Jesus was set on God’s purpose. The important part in all of this is that Jesus knew he would endure the day to come like no sinless man should have to. Jesus still took up his cross and determined himself to follow through with God’s plan; trusting Him.

The second thing the cross represents is sin- Jesus died to sin. Jesus redeemed all sin on the cross. So when you take up your cross, what sins do you take up with you? Taking up your cross represents dying to your flesh and sin. God wants us to be more holy in all situations. He wishes this for us so that we may become more like Jesus and have a stronger connection to God. He wishes for us to be able to see His face and hear his love in our Spirits like a second nature. But first, you must identify your sins and eliminate them form your soul. God will help reveal this- as only He can know what you carry.

Each of us will take up our cross in our own way when we set ourselves on God’s purpose and stop the sins we commit. This is how we disengage from the antics and destructions of the world, and learn to live God’s way of life- the way of life he had already planned out for our taking.

I continue to seek God’s purpose. I continue to identify my sins- lust, envy, bad language, smoking, speaking to others in an ungodly way, anger. I don’t think I could end the list… it’s an every day reflection of my ways. I often feel like a failure, and a disappointment to the Lord. I wonder if I have gone too far off of God’s path to ever reconcile. I beat myself up over my mere humanity. How I can be so small and so unknowing. How can I continue to be ignorant to God even when my GOD has spoken? But I also know God would not tell me those things- but Satan would love for me to believe them. Don’t listen to these things- but take up your cross to Calvary (figuratively). Set yourself on God purpose and let God help you cleans your soul. And you remember what happened at the end of the road for Jesus- someone else carried the cross for him. Beautiful, Just what I will do! Take my cross as far as I can go so I will understand the weight of my transgressions so my God can pick it up for me and carry it the rest of the way. My redemption is in the purpose of God- and I can not fail hard enough that he can no longer redeem me. How great is our GOD?!?

Be set in His purpose.