Take Up Your Cross: 40 days of looking more deeply at Jesus’ statements about suffering, taking up our cross to follow Him, and what it looks like to meet God in our suffering.

40-Day Devotional: Take Up Your Cross

Those of you who read last year’s devotional By His Stripes, may recall that in the Foreword I stated that “the topic of the suffering of Jesus very naturally overflows into the suffering of His followers—us. Jesus was clear that following Him would have a cost and that those who walked in His steps would suffer. But He also talked much about the rewards of being faithful and obedient to the end, as He was.”

This year we will look more deeply at Jesus’ statements about suffering and taking up our cross to follow Him, and we will see that some of His teachings clearly show us that there is very much a volitional quality to the kind of suffering to which He calls us, involving self-denial, which is a strong theme in Scriptures, especially in the New Testament. So how do we balance this idea of suffering that is imposed on us versus suffering that we take on voluntarily as part of our effort to follow Christ obediently? Is there a hierarchy of suffering? Does involuntary suffering even count as taking up our cross? 

I believe we will find that imposed suffering can be every bit as much a matter of taking up our cross, depending on our attitude about the suffering. Do we use it as a catalyst to bind us to Jesus? Do we use it to sharpen our spiritual vision? Do we submit to it, believing that it is entrusted to us by a good, loving, wise God who means it for our good and His glory? Or do we allow ourselves to feel victimized? Angry? Bitter? Alienated? Imposed suffering, in its many forms, is a great sifter of our souls. 

We will also dive more deeply into the suffering of self-denial in this series. In fact, I had so many notecards on that topic, and since it is a major theme in the New Testament and the teaching of Jesus, I thought about making it the theme of the entire series. However, there were far too many overlaps between imposed suffering and self-denial to separate the themes. 

Structurally, the series divides, for the most part, into 4 sections: The Call, Purposes, Christlike, and The Upside of Down. Let’s prayerfully contemplate how suffering, including self-denial, can draw us closer to the Lord in the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, and make us more Christlike as we look to Him to be our example in everything. 

Take Up Your Cross is designed to begin on Monday, March 10, and take you through Good Friday.

- Sheri Cook, Former Director of Special Ministries

Devotional Daily Reading:

  • “Take up your cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).

    When we think about a lot of evangelism efforts, we see the sales pitches emphasize all the pluses of coming to Jesus—His love, forgiveness, freedom, joy, guidance, fellowship with God…(all true)—but the call to “come and die,” as Bonhoeffer put it, is left largely in the fine print that no one talks much about (if at all). It is no wonder some professing believers get a bit of buyer’s remorse when faced with suffering for their faith, or calls to deny themselves—“when did I sign up for this?” Spurgeon said that too many people look to the cross for their salvation, but fail to see that it is also meant to be their occupation. 

    But Jesus is indeed calling those who wish to follow Him to come and die—die to self, and possibly literally lose their lives for His sake. Jesus doesn’t call any spiritual sissies—or at least, those who aren’t willing to grow beyond their feebleness and fears who will wash out when the fire and the scandal of the cross confronts them, for the cross has always been meant to be a bit scandalous. 

    As much as the cross is an instrument of death, it is also the only way to true life. Jesus has said that only those who are willing to lose their life will find it. He promises that the yoke, the cross He offers, leads to peace. In fact, Spurgeon says that believers who have yet to find peace have not made that connection of taking up their cross as their life, not just their hope for Heaven. 

    Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t call us to anything where He has not gone before us, nor does He send us alone into the face of suffering (remember, He said He’s yoked with us (Mt. 11:29-30)). No, He continually assures us of His love, presence, and the enabling power of His Spirit. He draws us deep into fellowship and love with Him to prepare us to face (and carry us through) whatever suffering, self-denial, or scandal the cross brings, so we will be able to say, “He is worth it, whatever the cost of taking up my cross to follow Him.” We not only take up our cross for Him, we fellowship more deeply with Him in the process. He didn’t suffer one bit more than was necessary. He suffered purposefully and sufficiently to take our punishment and glorify God.

    Consider

    • How are you moving toward the call to take up your cross, or are you running from it? Do you see the cross as merely salvation, or occupation?
    • How do you practice saying no to things you want, see as your right, or enjoy for the sake of the gospel? What do you do to take up your cross?
    • When Jesus calls you to come and die to something, do you balk, or do you think, “He is SO worth it!”? Think of examples in your life.
    • How can/do you meet Jesus when you take up your cross?

    Pray

    Lord, show me where comfort and selfish desires have become my gods, and have kept me from the suffering of taking up my cross. Help me to love You so much that I see You as SO worth any losses or crosses You call me to bear.