Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
There is confusion about the cross and our individual lives. Some think that an illness or sickness, accident, financial disaster etc. is our cross. Jesus made it clear that the cross is for us individually and we take it up willingly not by coercion or constraint. Our cross is what we take up willingly for Him and His cause – the cause of the gospel. Each will have their own cross – the responsibility of what we are called to and accept for the sake of Christ and the gospel.
Our ministry:
Each has a ministry to perform or the Lord. Each has their own calling. One is called to the mission field of foreign lands – there the cross may be the death to family, homeland, luxuries and even disease and death (literal death) in a land by diseases common in that land. Another may be called to a ministry to people at or near their home. This may mean death to our pleasures of kindness and fairness; friendly associates and nice surroundings. That cross may be the meanness and ugliness of prejudice, false accusation etc. Paul said 2 Corinthians 12:15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. Paul’s calling was apostle to the Gentiles and his cross was to die for the cause of Christ with all the hardships that went with is calling. Paul’s great desire was for his fellow countrymen, and he did minister but his greater and primary calling was to the Gentiles. Our cross may not bring physical death but it will bring death to us in other ways.
Deaths in our ministry:
- Task too great for our natural strength and ability. God says His strength is made perfect in our weakness. If God has called us to a task that overwhelms us it is because he desires us to learn to trust Him.
- Submitting to ordained authority. When we follow Christ, we will encounter situations as the early Christians did – they were told not to preach in Jesus’ name. They had to obey God but tis meant they were punished by the powers that were ordained by God.
- Ridicule and rejection. When we bear our cross of being a faithful witness to friends, family and work associates we can expect to be ridiculed and rejected. But Jesus said — Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
- Pain and hardship. When we follow Christ we can at some point expect pain and hardships — 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 (KJV)
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
- Miss treated and misused, lacking personal possessions. Bearing our cross often means doing without personal pleasures and possessions enjoyed by others.
- Little privacy and personal time. When our cross is some type of ministry, we die to the privacy the others enjoy and personal and private time. Jesus would go aide to rest but was always followed by the crowds and he never tuned them away.
- Falsely accused. Jesus taught the truth and cast out demons, but the people rejected the truth and accused Him of consorting with the devil and performing miracles by the power of the devil. Our cross can involve being accused falsely of many things and even being demonized by those we are trying to win for Christ.
- Having friends turn against us or reject us. Thise who we have fellowship and times of enjoyment with before salvation or taking up the cross of our ministry often reject us and turn away from us. Paul’s fellow Pharisees sought to kill and silence him after his conversion.
- Being misunderstood. Many do not undersdtand the call to salvation and ministry and so they often try to convince the follower to give up or quite this foolishness.
- Being nice. The cross of being nice and not retaliating is real for many people. Some personalities are naturally combative and aggressive, but when we take up the cross of ministry as Christian, we are called to be peacemakers and allow God to be the Revenger of those who oppose us.
