Luke 14:27 ESV “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
Reading all of the daily messages for this week seems to contradict this passage and others I will share with you today.
People come to Christianity and expect life to become harder, less enjoyable, and all the fun will be stripped from their lives. They believe they will have to become judgmental and tell everyone around them who they are supposed to be. They believe they will have to suffer greatly.
This verse is often used to convey this.
Jesus turns to the great crowds around Him and says:
Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
I do not expect you to turn against your family the moment you decide to follow Jesus. Instead, imagine it is like eating sugary cakes all of your life and then you discover a true desert made by the most masterful chef of the entire world. You have loved the sugary cakes all your life and you didn’t know there was anything better out there but now that you know of the best confections in the entire world you “hate” the sugary cakes that you used to love.
When you follow Jesus, you will find that all else simply cannot compare to Him. All else will fall short in comparison to Him. When you love Him, all else will seem like sugary cakes that no longer satisfy the incredible desire for the best and finest chocolate in the world. This is what Jesus is like.
Bearing your cross is often misrepresented also. The truth is that you bear your cross every single day of your life. Many people attempt to remove their own “cross” with things of this world like drinking, eating, partying, working outrageously for money, etc. I don’t want you bearing a cross that is not your own. I want you to bear your own cross for that is the cross that you were created to bear and you and I will be able to do it together.
I am not saying that life all the sudden becomes easy when you follow Jesus. Life often doesn’t change but your experience of it will change dramatically. As you love Me and dedicate your life to loving Me you will discover that the cross you are bearing is actually there for the joy set before you (Hebrews 12:2). It was for joy that Jesus bore His cross. If he had only looked at the suffering of it He would not have been able to endure it but He looked at the joy it would bring Him to bring all of you to Me for all eternity.
As you bear your cross look for the joy that it brings to you and all those around you.
You don’t need to be unhappy and sour faced in order to follow Jesus. You can be full of joy, peace, and all the other fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
I believe this is a message to us from God, written from His perspective – Sherri
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