What we are toting around tells a lot about who we are.
Luke 9:22-26 “The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things,” he said. “He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.”23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.
25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.
Jesus turns to the crowd and gives them an offer to follow him, that would be one thing if you knew that his future was bright and sunny but look at what preceded his invitation.
He gives them an offer but first he tells them that he isn't going down easy street, he isn't going to have a retirement plan, a car or be a homeowner, he isn't even going to be popular.
The offer that Jesus was making was a lifestyle change that included putting yourself aside and thinking about your neighbor, he wants us to be an example of his grace, mercy and forgiveness. That's a fascinating concept but for people that had so little to begin with, people that lived with harsh treatment and abuse and yet they still were drawn to Jesus and dropped what they were carrying so they could pick-up a cross.
"Is that your cross or is it just your stuff?" That's the question that we need to answer. James, John, Peter, and Andrew dropped their nets to follow him, Simon the Zealot, threw down his weapons, Matthew, the tax collector, let go of his riches.
The stuff that I am toting around will tell the world what I think is important, I need to drop everything that is weighing me down, the world has so many things to entice me to carry and it won't stop trying to convince me that I need more stuff and that I can have it all. I need to carry my cross and follow wherever I am asked to go without any excess baggage.
Lord help me to discard all of the things that Satan wants to use to weigh me down and make me too weak to carry my cross.
You might like to read:
Sacred Cows Can Stink The Place Up // Sell Your Possessions? // Choose The Narrow Way
He gives them an offer but first he tells them that he isn't going down easy street, he isn't going to have a retirement plan, a car or be a homeowner, he isn't even going to be popular.
The offer that Jesus was making was a lifestyle change that included putting yourself aside and thinking about your neighbor, he wants us to be an example of his grace, mercy and forgiveness. That's a fascinating concept but for people that had so little to begin with, people that lived with harsh treatment and abuse and yet they still were drawn to Jesus and dropped what they were carrying so they could pick-up a cross.
"Is that your cross or is it just your stuff?" That's the question that we need to answer. James, John, Peter, and Andrew dropped their nets to follow him, Simon the Zealot, threw down his weapons, Matthew, the tax collector, let go of his riches.
The stuff that I am toting around will tell the world what I think is important, I need to drop everything that is weighing me down, the world has so many things to entice me to carry and it won't stop trying to convince me that I need more stuff and that I can have it all. I need to carry my cross and follow wherever I am asked to go without any excess baggage.
Lord help me to discard all of the things that Satan wants to use to weigh me down and make me too weak to carry my cross.
You might like to read:
Sacred Cows Can Stink The Place Up // Sell Your Possessions? // Choose The Narrow Way
