Taking up your cross daily gets you engaged in your own sanctification. Follow the example of Jesus, whose cross was the sins of the world, and put to death your own sin.
Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and if you love the music of Keith and Kristyn Getty, then you probably know this beautiful hymn called “The Power of the Cross,” and I invite you to sing it with me. How about it?
(Joni sings:)
Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath –
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Wow. Oh, my goodness, there is so much about the cross, isn’t there? So much mystery – and just like this song says when Kristyn sings it, the power that is in the cross. And it is why, over the years, the words of Jesus in Luke 9:23 have inspired me so because Jesus says there, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
In a way, I’ve looked at my wheelchair as my cross to bear, but is it? What exactly is the cross I am to take up daily? What about you? Is your cross your arthritis, a dead-end job? Is your cross to bear an unhappy marriage or reoccurring headaches? Are these the things the Lord had in mind when he told us to take up our cross daily and follow him?
Well, I think the answer to that question can be found in the cross of Christ, because when he took up his cross, he was taking on the sins of the world; he was bearing our transgressions; he was willing to be nailed to the cross and die for our sins. And friend, that right there helps shape our view on what it should mean to take up our cross daily. It basically means to die to the sins that Jesus died for on his cross. In other words, my cross to bear is not my wheelchair, it’s my rotten attitude about my wheelchair; it is the fear and the anxiety, the anger I sometimes have when everything about my disability seems to go wrong at once. It’s the occasional doubts I have about God being in control. These are the things I must die to, because these are the sins Christ died for. So when I take up my cross daily, I purpose to be like Jesus. I want to die to sin and live for God. I want to put behind me the fear, put behind me the worry that my wheelchair often reveals about me. And in a way, it makes me grateful for this wheelchair, because this wheelchair reveals the stuff I need to confess. It’s the instrument of my sanctification every day and for that I’m thankful.
Friend, your cross to bear is not your boring job, or your aching back, or your irksome mother-in-law. Your cross to bear is your daily putting to death your attitude about your boring job, exasperating mother-in-law, and aching muscles, and this means you can rejoice in suffering. Why? Because it gets you engaged in your own sanctification each and every day. It happens when you take up your cross and follow him. If these insights bless you, then share them with your Facebook friends. Go today to joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends