Daily Affirmations - Day 6 - What Does My Lord Say? - Take Up Your Cross
- Alisa B.
- Apr 4
- 2 min read
Day 6: Take up your cross
Then [Jesus] called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).
Oh Lord our God and Redeemer, You are sovereign, infinite, and mighty, and the thoughts and ways of heaven are higher than can be measured by the dimensions in our scope (Isaiah 55:8-9).
What do we know about the way of the cross, except what we are willing to learn from a God whose way is perfect, whose word is flawless? (Psalm 18:30). What do we know about the way of forgiveness, and of sacrificial love, and of self-denial, except what You show us by Your own extraordinary example?
Yet You ask us to trust the path You have designed, even as every human instinct rises up in us to doubt, to question, to resist, and to reject. You ask us to take up [our] cross and follow [You] (Mark 8:34).
O Lord, You desire to protect us from the dangerous trap that made the disciple Peter an unwitting aide to the devil's schemes (Mark 8:31-32). When You rebuked Peter with the words, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God...” (Mark 8:33), it was because You recognized an attempt by the devil to tempt You to evade "the way of the cross." You had seen his schemes before:
The devil led [Jesus] up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Him, “I will give You all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be Yours.”
But You were not deceived by the combination of brazen, affronting pride and deadly danger— the destructive, devious, soul-corrupting, compromising deception camouflaged as "the easy way", and paraded as splendor and authority. Without hesitation, You used the truth of the Word to cut his lies and distortions to shreds: Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only’” (Luke 4:5-8).
Lord, like Peter, we often do not understand the way of the cross, except with hindsight. We are drawn to the easier way; we even dare to "rebuke" You at any hint of difficulty or suffering. Help us to trust You. Help us to know You would not tell us "Take up your cross" without knowing that it will ultimately lead to victory.
And help us to know that in this broken world, Yours is the only way that leads to life (Matthew 7:14). Help us to know that the destructive, devious, soul-corrupting, compromising deception camouflaged as the "easy way" is the way of death (Proverbs 16:25).
Help us to stand courageously as we use what You say to tear down the lies and distortions that cannot deliver what they promise. You alone, Lord, are the Truth, You alone are the Life (John 14:6). You alone are the Way, even when the Way is a cross.
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