Richard
Baxter offers good questions: “God is in
earnest with you. Why are you not so
with him? Why trifle with God?”
He goes
on to tally the reality of Jesus’ earnest life on earth and in death. He describes how distracted Jesus was in
ministry that He forgot to eat and how He prayed all night. He was willing to suffer in fasting,
temptation, betrayal, mocking, and ultimately crucifixion. Jesus modeled the Christian life for us as
one of such deep trust in God that He was willing to ignore all the good things
of the world. He had no home on earth;
His true home was heaven, and He lived contrary to the religious people, the
pagan, all of them. He showed us a whole
new way to live in the world. He taught
us where abundant life is found. He
exposed the emptiness of the beliefs we have developed since childhood of where
life and love are found.
The best
kind of living, according to Jesus, is to follow Him in denying your basic
human instincts and pick up the cross God designed for you with faith, hope and
love. In Matthew 16:24 Jesus says; “If
anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and
follow me.”
If you
are serious with God, then you will be able to recognize ways you deny yourself. How did you deny yourself today? Also, God will place a cross before you, and
you will pick it up. What is the cross
God asks you to pick up?
Your cross
is not the now extinct Roman cross of human suffering. Jesus doesn’t mean that. He alone could pick that one up. It was a cross too big for us and beyond our
ability because of sin. Yet He promises
that those who are truly devoted will be carrying crosses that will require
denial of themselves.
Peter’s
cross was to establish a church, to endure the persecutions and never give up
their faith as they passed on the Gospel to the next generation of
churches. Matthew’s cross was to write a
gospel that we would refer today. My
cross is to lead others to pray, connect with God’s Word, minister to
brokenness and help the poor. Though
self-denial is implied by the cross God designed for me, it gives my soul such
meaning and purpose and energizes me for the sidetracks into self-denial. Yes, my self-denials in the process hurt and
make me mad, but the reward of obedience far outweighs anything that I must
deny of myself of. I don’t mean to imply
that my tasks of self-denial are easy and pleasant—they are not. I am trying to say that when I accept the
suffering and cry to God in my grief rather than self-pity, I am rewarded with
a peace that passes understanding.
God is
serious about you! Are you serious about
Him?
Copyright © Deborah R Newman
teatimeforyoursoul.com All Rights
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A daily devotion for Advent and Christmastide. Advent
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Advent, a reality that transcends the traditional warmth of the season comes
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you count down to Christmas through the time-honored tradition of lighting a
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