Trying to understand what it really means to daily take up my cross and follow Him. To lose myself and follow the one who gave everything for me. To love Him so deeply, I am willing to give whatever He asks. My money, my health, my comfort, my time. Because it was never really mine to begin with, was it? I have been blessed with a really awesome group of people to fellowship with on Tuesday nights. Some of the best examples of what it really looks like to love like Jesus. In Tuesday night Bible study we have been discussing Luke 9:23-26.
Jesus was NOT COOL as He carried His cross through Jerusalem that day. As He hung on the cross at Calvary, only a few hundred people really mourned His death. The rest spit on Him and denied that He was the son of God. We can't even begin to wrap our minds around the betrayal and the brokenness He felt. The cross we are told we must take up daily. We know that it is not attractive, it is not at all appealing to the masses. We know that He did it anyway. Because of a love so great it transforms. It heals. It brings new life. When we begin to understand this kind love our life drastically changes. There is no way it could ever look the same.
This is my prayer: Jesus, break my heart for what breaks Yours. Take me to the hard places. Give me a burden for your children. A burden that is impossible to ignore. Give me the strength and the patience to love like You. Help me be completely satisfied in You, so that I may let go of all that the world has to offer. And any time I get it right, let it only bring glory to You. Amen.
-Kelsey
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Jesus was NOT COOL as He carried His cross through Jerusalem that day. As He hung on the cross at Calvary, only a few hundred people really mourned His death. The rest spit on Him and denied that He was the son of God. We can't even begin to wrap our minds around the betrayal and the brokenness He felt. The cross we are told we must take up daily. We know that it is not attractive, it is not at all appealing to the masses. We know that He did it anyway. Because of a love so great it transforms. It heals. It brings new life. When we begin to understand this kind love our life drastically changes. There is no way it could ever look the same.
This is my prayer: Jesus, break my heart for what breaks Yours. Take me to the hard places. Give me a burden for your children. A burden that is impossible to ignore. Give me the strength and the patience to love like You. Help me be completely satisfied in You, so that I may let go of all that the world has to offer. And any time I get it right, let it only bring glory to You. Amen.
-Kelsey
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