June 15, 2017
Jesus said: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)
Take up your cross…think about that for a second. A cross, even before Jesus was crucified was an object of execution, of torture. A person condemned to die, a criminal, would be forced to carry it through the city to their place of execution, and then they were nailed to it. So, what did Jesus mean by taking up your cross? It means being willing to surrender everything…our freedom, our reputation, our sense of security, our very lives…for him.
Here in our church, we have a great group of young people, and recently, they put surrendering ourselves to practice by participating in the 30 Hour Famine. We went without food, yes, that means the students and the leaders, for 30 hours to answer God’s calling to help those in need-those that are less fortunate than we are.
We spent Friday and Saturday doing activities and playing games that helped us to see what it would be like to be in the shoes of someone who is hungry and doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from, and we also made time for bible study and worship as well.
Now in surrendering just 30 hours without food, just a small speck of time in the grand scheme of things, we all began to understand what it really means to surrender ourselves to God, and to take up our cross and follow what God is calling us to do.
Now in surrendering just 30 hours without food, just a small speck of time in the grand scheme of things, we all began to understand what it really means to surrender ourselves to God, and to take up our cross and follow what God is calling us to do.
God wants us to make ourselves a living and holy sacrifice, to surrender our lives to Him so that He can give us a new life in Him. Think about it and pray about it…what is God calling you to surrender to him? Is it your stuff? Your status? Your sin? Or is that He’s looking for you to surrender yourself…to take up your cross and follow him? So if I could tell you one thing…it would be that we need to surrender to God. To put others before ourselves, and Christ above all.