A cross for me

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” – Galatians 2:20

Do you remember when Jesus was here, He called His followers to take up their crosses and follow Him, and furthermore, to do it daily? It wasn’t a “once and that’s it” sort of thing, but something you had to wrestle with every morning you wake up. But the very image that Jesus used – that of crucifixion – was disturbing to the disciples, even as it is to us today. Once a man bears his cross, his personal agenda dies.

A.W. Tozer put it like this: “The man with a cross no longer controls his destiny; he lost control when he picked up his cross… No matter what he may desire to do, there is but one thing he can do; that is, move on toward the place of crucifixion.”

On the cross Christ paid the price that enables us to find God’s forgiveness, but your willingness to allow yourself to be there with Him brings deliverance from the power of sin. Paul understood this far more plainly than we want to even glimpse it. He wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). The word Paul used when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ” is a past tense with present tense application. In other words, it began the day he shouldered His cross and began walking with the Lord, but it continues day by day, with a renewal every morning.

Your cross is your connection with the will of God, and it demands your surrender to what the Father wants of you. No, this is not to be feared, but to be acknowledged as the stair-steps to heaven.

The cross represents obedience. Scripture tells us that Jesus was obedient unto death, and that same obedience marks the man or woman of faith who can honestly say, “Not my will, Lord, but Yours be done this day!”

Used with permission from Guidelines International Ministries. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, send an e-mail to [email protected]. You may also visit www.guidelines.org.