Take Up Your Cross

God paved the way for my present and my future with the prayers that He placed into my heart many years ago. I didn’t know what new challenges I would have to overcome or what would be required of me as I uttered the sentiments of my heart into His ears. All I knew was that I wanted to serve Him.

One my many heart’s desires was to not be a seat filler. I didn’t want to grow content with occupying a seat in the church and never getting out of it to go into all the world to do what God had ordained for me to do in the earth. At that time I didn’t know who God had called me to be and I didn’t understand that some of my prayers was an indication of it.

Spoken from a transparent place, as life happened, the more God told me to get up the more I wanted to sit down. Tiredness and fear had gripped me on more occasions than I want to admit and I have had the audacity to whisper, “ get somebody else to do it”, on more than one occasion. I felt justified in what I was feeling and I had forgotten about those desires that I had shared with the Lord until He recently reminded me of them.

One thing about God is that in His grace, He will correct you. Once He has revealed your purpose to you, it is selfish for you to lay it back at His feet and then walk away from it because you didn’t realize that it would require you to both deny and die to yourself.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 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”

(Matthew 16:24-25).

Consider what your cross is:

· Could it be that you don’t have enough time in the day to get things done or is it that no one is helping you in the manner that you feel they should?

· Is it your emotions, complaints, or family obligations?

· Is it the bitterness that you feel from past wounds or new wounds?

No matter what the cross you carry may be, it all matters to God. He is not asking you to drain yourself for Him. He is inviting you to gain more of Him. Serving God is not about work, it’s about your heart posture.

Lord, I pray for Your spiritual eyesight and mindset. I pray to no longer see things from a me perspective from Your perspective on a local and global level. Forgive me for grumbling, complaining, and for trying to handle life on my own. I pray to receive the daily manna that you have for me and the peace that comes with knowing that you are with me. Help me to maintain peace. In Jesus name, Amen.

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