Have you watched the movie  The Passion of Christ? I have only seen it once at the movie theater when it was first released. I found myself crying and burying my face in my hands so many times during the graphic depiction of the Crucifixion.  I can remember thinking to myself,  “You need to face this,” but no amount  of “self-coaching” would allow me to keep from turning away periodically. It was so difficult to watch , and I can only imagine that it was much worse than what was depicted on the screen.  Tonight’s passage is from Luke 23:26-30. I read it several times focusing on each verse.  I kept coming back to verse 26,

As they led Jesus away a man named Simon who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming from the countryside.  The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.

I wondered what Simon was thinking when he was “seized” to carry the cross behind Jesus.  The Bible is clear in stating  he “happened” to be there,  so how do you stumble upon such a  pivotal moment in the history of the world?!  The thing that stood out to me most was he was ready to carry it.

As we discussed on Saturday in my previous post,  Jesus was pretty clear about His expectations for those who were to follow Him,

If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me (Matthew 16:24)

Tonight, I considered what Jesus may have specifically meant when He said,  “Take up your cross”.  The very act of carrying a cross during Biblical days was an indication that death was near, not just death , but a brutal death. So when Jesus says we must take up our cross,  I think He is saying,  we must die to sin.  Paul said it best,

No, I keep disciplining my body [flesh], making it serve me…. (I Corinthians 9:27, ISV)

We have to train our fleshly desires to be obedient to God’s Will.  We must surrender the temporal satisfaction of sin, in favor of the eternal abundant life that God has for us.  We have to be prepared to take up  our own cross,  and we must choose to do this daily.  We must remember that God is not asking us to do this in our own strength,  we must trust the sufficient grace of God to empower us to do WITH Him,  what we would never be able to do with our willpower alone.

The good news is God does not require something from us that we are incapable of doing. He never expects us to go ahead of Him.  He wants to be WITH us.  Tonight, I want to encourage you to welcome Him into those places that seem impossible.  That is what He wants,  He wants our impossibilities, because with Him  NO THING IS IMPOSSIBLE.  Give Him your impossibilities in exchange for His Perfect, good Will in your life. He wants to expose you to His miraculous transforming power.

Tonight’s Prayer: 

Dear Lord, 

Thank you for Your grace,  it is ENOUGH,  it is the power we need to Become the people You have created us to be.  We surrender ourselves to Your Will. We give our impossible areas to You because You do not recognize impossibility.  When we surrender our impossibilities, we welcome Your miraculous and Mighty power to show up in our lives and transform us.  We thank You in advance for Victory in all areas of our lives. We Trust You. 

In Jesus’ Name

Until next time, keep your hope LIVING!

Sincerely,
Delanea D

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