DAY 21 of #100daysofJesus - Take Up Your Cross

 

DAY 21 of #100daysofJesus

Jesus invites us to come follow Him by denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily.

He's obviously not referring to a physical cross in our case, so what does He mean?

Last year in General Conference, Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles taught:

"The Savior emphasized that all those who are willing to follow Him need to deny themselves and control their desires, appetites, and passions, sacrificing everything, even life itself if necessary, being entirely submissive to the will of the Father—just as He did. This is, in fact, the price to be paid for the salvation of a soul. Jesus purposely and metaphorically used the symbol of a cross to help His disciples better understand what sacrifice and devotion to the Lord’s cause would truly mean."

It's little wonder that Jesus juxtaposed this teaching with his famous line that in seeking our own life we would lose it, but that a willingness to lose our life would enable us find it.

And then Jesus says, "for what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

It's clear that the Christian path is not an easy one. It requires us to choose to sacrifice our own will to follow Jesus. As our Prophet, Russell M Nelson taught earlier this month, it requires us to "let God prevail in our lives."

When I think about the difficulty of the Savior's invitation to take up my cross and follow Him, the metaphor hits home. He wasn't exaggerating in the symbol of carrying a cross. This is hard. This will take a lifetime to get right. But the price of discipleship is worth it!

(References: Matthew 10:38-39, Luke 9:23-25, Mark 8:34-37, General Conference October 2019 "Take Up Our Cross" by Elder Ulisses Soares, General Conference October 2020 "Let God Prevail by President Russell M Nelson)