Deny youself,pick up your cross and follow me

[marrion]

In matthew 16:24 Jesus tells his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Many times our flesh will cause us to go after or desire things that we know as a follower of Jesus we should not.
The particular temptation may be something we would like to consume,watch,touch or listen to.
As we grow in grace(titus 2:11-12),wisdom and strength we are better able to resist these things.
We also learn how to put on the whole armor of God which helps us fight off temptations more efficiently.
Can you list some things that God has helped you to be able to deny yourself daily in order to be a follower and disciple of Jesus Christ?

Here are a few of mine:watching to much sports on tv,worldly movies,worldly music..........

 

[Blain]

Deny youself,pick up your cross and follow me. This is exactly what he told me this morning when I woke up, that's kinda scary:]

 

[marrion]

Blain that is very cool my brother.
In the mouth of two or three witnesses.
Praise God.

 

[breno785au]

Isn't it amazing that Jesus said to do that before He went up on the cross

 

[marrion]

Amen Breno.
He was our example.
We must crucify the flesh and its passions and come forth in newness of life.
Every Christian has their own cross to bear wether they realize it or not but thank God that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

 

[Delija]

That words of Jesus Christ were perfectly followed by the Saints which denied themselves and called themselves the sinners 1st of all,unwortly, and practice all the time,even until sleep The Jesus Prayer : Lord Jesus Christ ,the Son of God,have mercy upon of me,a sinner.I could bet that u haven't heard for this prayer.
Meanings of those words are that with taking the cross u taking your destiny which is crosifiction and death.And with out death there is no Resurrection !
EXTREME HUMILITY!
IC XC NI KA

 

[gb9]

I see part of this verse like this: Jesus is leading, we are to follow. it is easy to veer off the path and start doing our own thing. so I try to guard against that.

 

[letti]

I think,I am doing this bearing some things that cause me a lot of heartache,and I can still honestly love these people that do not Know how to love me or anybody else.I am hoping and praying love will conquer them over to Christ in the end,if Christ allows them to be taught something they have not embraced as of yet.

 

[Delija]

God doesn't force anyone to walk in the light. Men deceive themselves when they choose darkness.

All the answers are in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He doesn't play games.

Ok,so what we use for comparing of our interpretation of God Word?

 

[KohenMatt]

One of the awesome things about this verse is that it has 2 parts. There is the 1st in denying yourself, which you have already mentioned and shared. This is definitely the first step, denying yourself of things that separate yourself from God, and emptying yourself of yourself. There are lots of believers with noble intentions who do this on a daily basis, and there is a benefit from it. What ends up happening all too often is that we remove something in our lives and become somewhat of an empty vessel, but we don't fill it back up with what we should. It ends up getting filled back up with much of the same junk we had before. Then we start the same process over again, and a sad cycle develops.

Fortunately, Yeshua/Jesus gave us the 2 part "formula". Not only do we deny ourselves and empty ourselves, but we pick up our cross and then follow Him. We take something out, and then immediately fill it back up with something else. I think one picture of a "cross" is our purpose, our mission. That was Jesus'. His cross, or stake, as some will say, was His purpose, His mission, one of the focuses of His ministry. What is our cross? What has God specifically called us to do with our lives. What is our common mission in life, broken down into a specific purpose? What is what we should immediately take up and follow Him with.

So it is vital that we remove things from our lives, and I'm sure there will be lots of encouraging examples shared here. But just as we remove specific things from our lives, what specific things are we picking up?

Just a couple of thoughts. Awesome thread, marrion.

 

[marrion]

letti God bless you.
I don't think Jesus wants you to bare heartache.
I believe he wants to heal our hearts.
I believe the cross we bare has more to do with our flesh than our hearts.
Jesus wants us to have peace and joy in our hearts

 

[marrion]

kohenmatt that is a good word my brother.
Very insightful and edifying.
What you say about the cross makes perfect sense.
I believe part of the cross we bare is our flesh which we have to pick up everyday and deny until we become dead to the world.
And I love what you say about our purpose in the kingdom of God being our cross too.
Theres a guy whose whole ministry was to carry or drag a wooden cross all over the world while sharing the gospel with people.
He was very successful too.i think he has been in most of the countries on this planet,even the places which are normally hostile to christens received him and gave him an audience.
Quite an inspiring story.

 

[Delija]

The Cross is where the victory was obtained for us; and the Cross is the way we must go to leave this world behind, and enter into the Kingdom of God. “Whoever would follow Me,” our Lord says, “must deny himself, and take up his Cross.” What does it mean to deny ourselves? Blessed Theophylact writes that we can learn what it means to deny ourselves by considering what it means to deny another. What do we tend to do when we see the suffering of another person? Do we intervene? Or do we go our way, and say nothing? To deny ourselves is to say nothing when it is us who are suffering – to consider ourselves as to be of no value in this world, and so to endure whatever comes our way in this world without protest, without complaint. What does it mean to take up our Cross? It means to be willing to suffer, even die, for Christ. At some times, and in some places, this means a martyr’s death. Yet even when it is not a literal death, we are called to be willing to endure the ridicule and rejection of a “social” death – to be cut off from those who live in the world around us because we choose to follow the way of life we have been blessed to receive in the Church, rather than to live according to the ways permitted in the world. We are meant to be witnesses to Christ, to show Him present in the world because He is living in us – and so we live according to holiness, and not the way of the world, the flesh, and the devil. “Before Thy Cross, we bow down to Thee in worship, O Master; and Thy holy Resurrection, we glorify.” Grant us grace, O Lord, that we may not deny Thee, but may deny ourselves, and take up the Cross of holiness, and make the journey through Great Lent to Thy glorious Pascha, and so be found worthy, in Thy mercy, to enter into Thy kingdom. Let us glorify Thee in word and deed, so that our souls may be saved; and we may bear witness to others, that they also may be saved.
Fr. John McCuen

 

[Simona25]

I try to empty myself of the ideas and the image that I often tend to create or have about myself and take an honest look to who I really am and ask God to help me grow up, to have mercy on me and to help me take up my cross.

 

[marrion]

praise God simona.
That is a very humble and noble request you ask the Lord.
Im sure he will help you with what you ask.
God bless you and thanks for sharing.