Today in my personal devotion time, I read Luke 9:23, where Jesus tells us that if we want to follow him, we must "Deny ourselves and take up our cross daily..."
After reading that scripture, I asked myself, "what does it mean for me to take up my cross today and everyday for that matter?"
To understand that scripture fully we have to look at what it meant for someone under the Roman law to die on a cross. In the day of Jesus, someone sentenced to die on the cross meant that he/she no longer had any rights as citizens; the state owned them completely. It was the most humiliating and painful act of death the Romans could dream up. Not only having to carry your execution device(the cross) to the place of death, while experiencing ridicule on the way...but after all of that, be put to death.
When Jesus said these words, he was telling us that following Him means to give up all of our rights and surrender them to Him.
It means though we will be ridiculed and talked about... every morning that we wake, and constantly during the day, we must die.
And because of that death...the life we live does NOT belong to us. We must deny the things "We" desire to do and "Accept" the things God desires for us to do.
Wow, that is easier said, or "typed" than done.
Pray for me... a selfish/ prideful sinner who deserves death, but because of the cross and the grace it brings, is considered Holy and Righteous...
