“Just put the cross down.”
After 44 years of life and 14 years serving in ministry, I recognize those words for what they are: the wooing words of the flesh and the devil. The temptation is always the same. Satisfy yourself. Give in. Pursue what feels good. But following Christ requires something radically different.
Jesus never promised that carrying our cross would be easy. He commanded us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. And if I’m honest, I don’t always want to deny myself. I want what I want. I want to satisfy my desires. But true Christian satisfaction isn’t found in pleasing ourselves; it’s found in pleasing God.
Life has pleasures, but the pursuit of pleasure is not our purpose. The pursuit of God is.
Denying the flesh gets heavy. Resisting temptation gets difficult. But we are never called to lay down our cross to pick up the temporary pleasures of this world and go running into the brambles of sin and self-destruction.
Here’s the reminder I want you to carry today: YOU HAVE POWER!
If you are a born-again, blood-washed believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives within you. You have been given power to say NO to the world, the flesh, and the devil. You may not have the power to control the world, defeat Satan by your own strength, or change everyone’s circumstances, but through Christ, you have the power to resist temptation and refuse everything contrary to God’s Word and His will.
Revelation 12:11 reminds us that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, loving not our lives even unto death.
So when temptation whispers, “Just put the cross down, it’s too heavy” remember who lives within you and declare firmly: “No!”
Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Jesus.
Don’t surrender to what Christ has given you power to overcome.
I HAVE POWER! Not in myself, but through the Spirit of the living God!
