“Take up your cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).

When we think about a lot of evangelism efforts, we see the sales pitches emphasize all the pluses of coming to Jesus—His love, forgiveness, freedom, joy, guidance, fellowship with God…(all true)—but the call to “come and die,” as Bonhoeffer put it, is left largely in the fine print that no one talks much about (if at all). It is no wonder some professing believers get a bit of buyer’s remorse when faced with suffering for their faith, or calls to deny themselves—“when did I sign up for this?” Spurgeon said that too many people look to the cross for their salvation, but fail to see that it is also meant to be their occupation. 

But Jesus is indeed calling those who wish to follow Him to come and die—die to self, and possibly literally lose their lives for His sake. Jesus doesn’t call any spiritual sissies—or at least, those who aren’t willing to grow beyond their feebleness and fears who will wash out when the fire and the scandal of the cross confronts them, for the cross has always been meant to be a bit scandalous. 

As much as the cross is an instrument of death, it is also the only way to true life. Jesus has said that only those who are willing to lose their life will find it. He promises that the yoke, the cross He offers, leads to peace. In fact, Spurgeon says that believers who have yet to find peace have not made that connection of taking up their cross as their life, not just their hope for Heaven. 

Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t call us to anything where He has not gone before us, nor does He send us alone into the face of suffering (remember, He said He’s yoked with us (Mt. 11:29-30)). No, He continually assures us of His love, presence, and the enabling power of His Spirit. He draws us deep into fellowship and love with Him to prepare us to face (and carry us through) whatever suffering, self-denial, or scandal the cross brings, so we will be able to say, “He is worth it, whatever the cost of taking up my cross to follow Him.” We not only take up our cross for Him, we fellowship more deeply with Him in the process. He didn’t suffer one bit more than was necessary. He suffered purposefully and sufficiently to take our punishment and glorify God.

Consider

• How are you moving toward the call to take up your cross, or are you running from it? Do you see the cross as merely salvation, or occupation?
• How do you practice saying no to things you want, see as your right, or enjoy for the sake of the gospel? What do you do to take up your cross?
• When Jesus calls you to come and die to something, do you balk, or do you think, “He is SO worth it!”? Think of examples in your life.
• How can/do you meet Jesus when you take up your cross?

Pray

Lord, show me where comfort and selfish desires have become my gods, and have kept me from the suffering of taking up my cross. Help me to love You so much that I see You as SO worth any losses or crosses You call me to bear.

“We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

The cross is many things to many people. For example, our opening verse says that it is a “stumbling block” to the Jews. The Greek word used here is skandalon from which we get our word scandal. The Jewish law said that anyone who hung on a tree was accursed, so the scandal of Jesus being hung on the tree led many to scornfully reject Him. Even today people often have scorn for the cross and for Christians. When we take up our cross, we are accepting His scorn and His shame from some, and considered foolish by others. 

Rankin Wilbourne points out that the cross was an instrument of torture—of suffering, humiliation, and death. It was not venerated, it was feared—at least until Jesus was killed on one; then Christians turned the whole concept on its head. Instead of fearing and fleeing the cross, they embraced it, along with all the suffering, humiliation and death that went with it. Why? Because they wanted to “become like Him in His death,” no matter the cost, because they found having Jesus and the fellowship of His suffering worth whatever it cost. 

We Westerners don’t concern ourselves about literally following Jesus on an actual cross, so what does it mean for us? It can still mean scandal, shame and scorn, as well as suffering (both imposed and chosen). Wilbourne says, “There is no Christianity without the cross. Thus, there is no Christianity without suffering.” That is just the reality of being “in Christ.” The cross is where we experience the fellowship of Christ’s suffering. It is not merely resigning ourselves to His suffering, but embracing it, seeing that the cross is where we meet God. It’s also where our self-life goes to die so we can begin to break our attachments to this temporary and sinful world and fully give ourselves to God. The cross is the pattern for our lives, as we take it up daily and nail all that is self-life and sin to it. A.W. Tozer says, “Our cross will be determined by whatever pain and suffering and trouble which will come to us because of our obedience to the will of God.” 

Consider

• What crosses haven’t you chosen, but you’ve taken up because you felt they were God’s will for you? Did you do so willingly, or was there a struggle?
• Have you embraced the cross, or merely resigned yourself to it? 
• How has the cross been your pattern for living? How is it affecting your self-life? How are you fellowshipping with God there? 

Pray

Lord, help me to embrace the cross in whatever form it comes to me, so that I take it up in loving obedience, as You did for me. May the life of the cross become my pattern for living each day. Help me to see all the suffering the cross brings as Your invitation to meet You in loving fellowship. 

“If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself…” (Mark 8:34b).

Jesus says that there is a prerequisite if we want to call ourselves a follower of His: we must deny ourselves. Those who fail to do this may be Christ-admirers, but cannot truly be Christ-followers. It is a bedrock necessity for all who would “come after” Him. Thomas Watson states that “self-denial is the foundation of godliness, and if this is not well laid, all the building will fall,” so let’s be sure we’re laying it well. 

When Jesus tells us to deny ourselves and take up our cross, He’s not really giving us two separate commands; these are two different expressions of the same idea. Both of them imply death to the former life where self is at the center. We’ve heard the old adage that nature abhors a vacuum, so when we deny ourselves we aren’t just taking self away, leaving a vacuum; we are replacing self and self-will at the center of our lives with Christ and His will for us. 

We do this by following His example. Watson reminds us how much self-denial Jesus exercised on our behalf: He left the glories and comforts of the Father’s bosom, put on flesh, denied the glory of His name, gave up His reputation, denied earthly riches and grandeur, gave up His life, and was obedient to death. If that is what Jesus did for us, is it strange that He would expect those He calls to follow Him to do likewise? 

It might be helpful to look at what self-denial is and isn’t. It isn’t salvation by works; our self-denial doesn’t give us merit or salvation. It isn’t to be motivated by personal gain, like being admired by others. It’s not only occasional, it’s daily. It isn’t easy or effortless; it’s agony to put to death our desires. 

It is separating ourselves from things that distract or distance us from God and pollute our spirits. It’s removing things that fuel our complacency. It’s dying to self-will, sin, and the values of the world. It’s a willingness to lay down our own lives for Him and others. It’s showing the same attitude as Jesus when suffering. It’s a reorienting of our lives so that Jesus is the center, not us. 

Consider

• Are you a Christ-admirer or a Christ-follower? How do you know?
• When you see all Jesus did for you, what do you value more than Him? 
• When you consider the list of what self-denial is, how well is your foundation laid? Which of these is an area where you struggle most? 
• How have you been confused by things that aren’t real self-denial? 
• What do you need to deny so that Jesus is the center and not you?

Pray

“Dear Father, give me such a vision of the cross, and such an understanding of Christ’s death on behalf of sinners, that I will be willing to die to all selfishness within me.” (L.G. Parkhurst)

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Mark 8:35b).

When Jesus called us to deny ourselves, He followed up with the consequences of not doing so. If we cling to saving our self-life, we will ultimately lose our lives; but by denying our self-life for His sake, we will find that we will truly live. As AW Tozer sees it, the problem is that “a whole new generation of Christian has come up believing that it is possible to ‘accept’ Christ without forsaking the world.” There is far too large a body of people within the church, especially in the West, who do not realize how vital it is that we heed Jesus’ stark warning. It is a reminder that the faith to which He calls us isn’t a mere acknowledgement of the work of the cross, but a willingness to fully submit our lives to it. 

Self-denial is about removing our self from the center of our desires and our will for our lives and centering our lives on Christ, His will, and desires for us. We can either serve God or serve self, we cannot do both. As He so bluntly said, “Why do you say, ’Lord, Lord,’ but don’t do what I say?” We will love to please God or love to please self. The only way we can do both of those is if we are like Jesus and our greatest pleasure is pleasing God. Jesus wanted this so much that He “gave up His own life rather than do His own will” (David Tyler). 

Andrew Murray stresses the importance of this choice: “There is no other choice for us; we must either deny self or deny Christ…It was self that made the devil. Self was the cause of the fall of man. Self must be utterly denied. Self must be ignored and its every claim rejected.” Self, as much as we cherish it, is truly the enemy of our souls. Every choice for serving self is a choice for embracing spiritual death. Jesus doesn’t call us to deny self because He’s mean, but because He knows that doing so is the source of great spiritual life, joy, peace, and freedom in His love. The more we grow in our ability to deny self, the more we grow into His image and in fellowship with Him. 

Consider

• How does ignoring the centrality of suffering through self-denial demean Jesus’ sacrifice and minimize its impact? 
• How has a lack of emphasis on self-denial robbed your life of power?
• Who is at the center of your life, self or Jesus? How are you intentionally growing in this area?
• In what ways have you been cherishing self? Have you seen its destructive effects on your spiritual life and relationships with others? 

Pray

Lord, so often there’s a war in my spirit between cherishing self and following You in denying self to serve God and others. But I’d rather have that war than appease a self that is an enemy within. Make me aware when self is reigning, and give me the will and love for You to dethrone self and center all life on You. 

“By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16).

The Scriptures are quite clear that God has declared that the motive for Jesus’ own acts of self-denial, all the way to the cross, was love—love for the Father and for us. There is no greater love than if someone would give their life for us. Therefore, it stands to reason that if His call is for us to follow Him in this denying of self, we should have a similar motivation—love for God and love for others. That is the very heart of what is behind the call to suffer by denying self. 

As we have stated in previous days, our mindset should be to compare the worth of what the self desires to the incomparable worth of Jesus and what He has done for us. When we choose our will over His we are showing that our value system is hideously messed up, and that we, in fact, despise Him. That may be a jarring statement, because we tend to think that our little preferences don’t amount to much, but in the economy of eternity we are trading what is eternal and glorious (the perfect, loving, wise will of God), for what is temporal, worthless, debasing, and will pass away. We are trading what is love and life for us for what is deadly to our souls. We are trading the loving Lordship of One who gave His very life to save us, for the mastery of what will, in the end, destroy us. If valuing those things above Him isn’t despising Him, I’m not sure how to better define it. 

With our choices of whether or not to deny ourselves, we are deciding if our allegiance is to the authority of Jesus or to self-rule—aka rebellion—the same rebellion of Lucifer and Eve, the rebellion that got us into the hopeless mess we found ourselves in—hopeless until He lovingly gave His life to redeem us out of the mess. He has every right to ask us to lose our lives for His sake, because He gave His life for us. Indeed, the phrase “for my sake” means “on account of me.” So, our motive for suffering by self-denial should be on account of Him—on account of His love demonstrated in the giving of His life for us. Is that not reason enough to give Him ours? 

Consider

• Why do you think it is so hard for you to deny yourself? 
• What does your choice of whether or not to deny self reveal about your values?
• How does thinking about eternal consequences help you reframe your values?
• How is self-denial a declaration of your love for God and others?
• How does focusing on the love aspect of self-denial (both Christ’s and yours) enhance your motivation to lay down your life?

Pray

Lord, it sobers me to think that when I choose myself over You that I am despising You. It breaks my heart to realize how rebellious I can be, but it also helps me to realize even more how merciful, loving and patient You have been. Help me to value You more than anything my self desires, and to return Your love.

“If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mark 8:34b).

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

It can feel a bit overwhelming when we are faced with the reality of that call, when we come to grips with the fact that following Jesus means that we have to deny our own wills when they conflict with His, and die to sinful, selfish choices that pull at us, and be willing to give our lives in little daily ways, as well as even the ultimate way. We can despair of having the will and ability to follow Jesus so radically, and are sobered by the fact that He says that those who refuse to do so aren’t worthy of Him (Mt. 10:38). And the truth is that we really can’t follow Him to that level—at least not on our own. 

The good news is that when Jesus saved us He put His Spirit in us to dwell with us, teach us, and transform us, giving us new desires. He brings us into loving union with the Godhead, and helps us to know and see more and more clearly the value of Jesus and to love Him the more we grow to know Him. In his book, Waiting on God, Andrew Murray repeatedly encourages us not to despair when feeling overwhelmed or like a failure in the pursuit of God, but to cast ourselves in dependence on His grace. We must do that daily, often moment by moment, if we want to follow Him and imitate His example of a life of loving self-denial, willing suffering, and affectionate obedience to the Father. 

The truth is, we will only follow and make our lives like someone we value. Joshua West says, “It’s hard to follow Christ wherever He leads us when we think more of the things He asks us to give up than we do of Him.” He goes on to say that God changes our hearts to value Jesus more than our former desires. We need to pray for God to work that change in us, help us to see, know, and love Him more, and to fan our desires to follow Jesus in every way, despite the cost, knowing that our fellowship with Him grows as we participate with Him in His suffering. 

Consider

• Do you sometimes despair of living up to the call to follow, denying self? What do you do in response to that feeling?
• How have you defined “following Jesus” prior to this point? 
• How much do you rely on your own strength to follow Jesus?
• What is God saying to your heart about following Him? 

Pray

Lord, I have not followed You to the degree that Your call would indicate. Thank You for Your Spirit’s patient enabling to know, love, and follow You more, as You reveal Yourself and Your inestimable value to me.

“May I never boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

“Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing way along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

Having heard and responded to Jesus’ call to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him, the New Testament writers fleshed out what that looks like in their lives and ours. Paul uses the language of dying to the world or terms like “put off” and “put on” to describe the change in mindset toward self (Eph. 4:22-25; Col. 3:9-14; Rom.13:14), and other Spirit-inspired writers help us to see in practical terms the implications of living a crucified, Christ-centered life as well. 

Essentially, it boils down to a change of mindset born out of the Spirit’s illumination of the status of the world from a heavenly perspective. When we were under the grip of world-think, we valued what the world values: wealth, status, self-determination, etc. But the Spirit opens our eyes to see how temporary, empty, corrupt, and meaningless what the world values and offers really is. 

Rankin Wilbourne suggests that one of the strongest earthly attachments is the desire for approval, “We want to be liked. Yet Jesus tells us we will be hated (Jn. 15:18-19).” Following Christ is synonymous with rejection. When we try to avoid rejection, keep our reputations, be well thought of, and save face, we have fallen into the trap of saving our lives instead of willingly losing them for Christ’s sake. We have valued worldly approval over the approval of God. 

We need to pray with Paul that our spiritual eyes will continue to be opened so we can know—and therefore find more value in—the hope to which we’ve been called, the power we have in the Spirit, and the unfathomable love of Christ for us (Eph. 1:1-19; 3:14-21). With that perspective “the things of earth will dim and lose their value,” and the Lord and His ways will be the desires of our hearts.

Consider

• Which and how much of the worldly values are still a draw in your life? How can you gain the heavenly perspective on them?
• If a faith that costs nothing is worth nothing, what of the world’s hold is the Lord impressing on you that you need to die to?
• How does your prayer life reflect your battle with your worldview?

Pray

Lord, take me to the cross of Jesus, that I may fellowship with Him in His death by desiring more and more to die to the world, to sin, to my desire for approval, or comfort, or security outside of You. Give me Your heavenly perspective.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2).

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials” (1 Peter 1:6).

We have looked a lot at the topic of self-denial, which brings about a lot of soul-suffering, as well at the potential for physical suffering. But all of us face other kinds of suffering, often imposed on us by our fallen world, in the form of circumstances, sickness, or the sins of our own or others against us. As Jesus plainly told us, “In this world you will have trouble…” The Bible never sugar-coats suffering, but treats it with glaring reality, yet also great compassion.

Spurgeon noted that sometimes our imposed suffering is indeed cross-bearing, when we humbly submit to providence. “If your lot is hard, look upon it as Christ’s cross, and bow your head to it.” Receiving suffering as from His good, wise, and loving hand, and submitting to it with an attitude that seeks to join our hearts with His in the suffering is indeed taking up our cross. It is not the suffering per se that is the cross, but our choice of the attitude as we endure it. 

As both James and Peter show, the suffering will be different to different people. These trials are various because different people need different experiences to draw them into fellowship with the Lord and refine them to conform to His image. We will often see patterns in our suffering; some seem to suffer relationally, some financially, others physically, still others in their work… The list is long because there are so many ways to suffer in this fallen world, but also because we are each so distinct. What is a real trial for one person might not as greatly affect another. God knows us intimately; He knows how we are wired, where we are weak or strong, what is likely to break us or what will draw us to Him. He knows what our impurities are and how hot to make the fire to purge them.

Diverse difficulties also result in a variety of glory and honor—both for Him and for us—when Jesus is revealed. To make that spectrum of glory and honor the most splendid, He makes use of a wide variety of trials in our lives.

Consider

• When you suffer, do you lovingly and trustingly submit, do you feel like God is unfair, or do you assume He’s angry at you?
• How can you use suffering as a place to meet with God and know His love?
• Does your suffering run in patterns? Do you sense that there’s a particular part of your life He wants to touch or that draws you to Him?

Pray

Lord, You never look down on me in my suffering, but reach out in Your compassion. Help me to quickly turn to You in trust and love, and receive from You all the good You intend when I’m suffering, and deepen in Your love.

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you. Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you. Be sober minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:6-8).

It is not only Peter who calls us to a proper perspective when we suffer or are in need. He heard Jesus Himself caution His hearers in a similar way (Mt. 6:25). When we are suffering it is very easy to let our attitudes go south. Peter warns us about the state of our minds, particularly when we suffer, and how the enemy of our souls will try to devour us. I would often tell people with whom I counseled to beware of what-if monsters that often plague us in times of crisis, because they’ll eat us alive. That advice is grounded in this passage. 

There are a number of perspective errors which we can get sucked into when we suffer, which is why we need to heed both Peter’s and Jesus’ call to keep our focus on God’s truth. Michael Emlet warns, “When faced with...immense suffering...there is a temptation to either numb ourselves in resignation or to aggressively try and fix what is wrong by wielding whatever control or power we can muster within ourselves.” As we addressed in last year’s devotional, resignation is not submission (neither is Stoicism). In resignation there’s an air of feeling like a resentful victim that does not fit the criterion of “humbling” ourselves under God’s mighty, loving hand, and which misses His heart. 

Neither is desperately grasping for control, a sign of humble submission to God’s work in our lives. We can’t know for what purpose God has sent our difficulties; but we can trust in His Word and His character that it’s done in love, meant for our good, and designed by His wisdom, so we need to yield to Him.

We err when we believe that all suffering is bad and needs to be over quickly. Suffering definitely isn’t pleasant, but God says it is meant for our good; it needs to last until His good work is done in us. We err when we sullenly or fearfully isolate from God instead of seeking Him in our pain. Suffering is meant to draw us into the fellowship of sharing in His suffering and to hear His voice. As C. S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures but He shouts to us in our pain.” Let us be humble and persevering enough to listen.

Consider

• What errors do you find yourself slipping into when you suffer? Do you get anxious, angry, controlling, distant, doubtful, complaining…? Others?
• How does Scripture help you check your attitudes at these times?

Pray

Lord, guard me from perspective errors when I suffer. Keep me from being resentful or stoic, or from trying to control what is in Your wise and loving hands. Help me to join with Jesus in humble, loving, trusting submission.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28-29).

This passage is so comforting for us because it reminds us that nothing with God is purposeless (“God causes everything to work together”). Nancy Guthrie suggests that these verses mean that “if we are in Christ, we can be sure that our suffering is not random or meaningless. It is purposeful. And oh, how we want the suffering in our lives to have meaning and purpose.” 

Paul also tells us that far from being an interruption in the productive life we want to get back to, “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor. 4:18). Achieving! Our troubles are not only purposeful they are productive! And what they produce will outlive and outweigh the pain—all the way to eternity! That promise is important to hold on to, because God may not ever tell us the purpose of our pain on this side of Heaven, but we know we can trust His Word and His character. 

Not only does suffering achieve glory in Heaven, it produces something for us in the here and now. Paul tells us that we can actually rejoice when we suffer, because “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit He has given us” (Rom. 5:3-5). Suffering has as one of its purposes the production of godly character in us. And not only that, it produces hope, of all things. So often we feel hopeless when we suffer, but if we focus on God’s truth, His promises, and His presence throughout the ordeal, He will purposefully build hope in us—our hope is found in Him.

To top it off, He pours His love into us through His Holy Spirit. I can personally testify that I have learned and experienced more of the love of God in times of suffering than I have in times of ease and rejoicing. God’s purpose in redemption is to bring us back into a love relationship with Him, and He works that purpose in everything He does, even in our suffering. He flows His compassion to us, and literally pours out His love into our hearts at such times! Praise Him!

Consider

• How does it help you to know that your suffering has purpose? How can holding on to purposefulness help you when you’re called to suffer?
• What character development have you seen from your suffering?
• When is it you have learned/experienced the most about God’s love? How has God displayed His love and drawn you to Him in your suffering?

Pray

Lord, help me to keep Your purposes and Your love in mind when You call on me to suffer. May I trust in Your promises and Your character and not feel hopeless. Rather, may I have a deeper experience of Your poured-out love.