Take Up Your Cross, and Follow Me

Matthew 14; Matthew 15; Matthew 16
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Scripture

Matthew 16

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.

25 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. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. 28 And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

Observation

Dying to self is what Jesus is talking about when He says, take up your cross, and follow me. Unless we die to self, we are not following Jesus. So do you want to be a Christ-follower? Then you must learn how to die to self. Did I mention that you and I have to die to self every day? You do – everyday!

Application

I will meditate on and try to fully understand what it means for me to take up my cross and follow Jesus.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me grasp what you were telling your disciples. They understood what it meant to take up one’s cross but we don’t have crosses today that men die on so show me what this means for us today.

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