Taking Up Your Cross Daily | Wednesday
Devotional
When Jesus spoke about taking up our cross, His audience understood exactly what He meant. The cross wasn’t a piece of jewelry or a religious symbol—it was an instrument of execution. To take up your cross meant you were walking toward your own death.
Jesus isn’t asking us to literally die physically every day, but He is calling us to die to our own way of living. This means dying to our conveniences when they conflict with God’s will. It means dying to our comfort when God calls us to step out in faith. It means dying to our sin when it promises temporary pleasure.
This daily death isn’t punishment—it’s the pathway to real life. When we die to ourselves, we become alive to Christ in ways we never imagined possible. We discover that the life we were trying so hard to preserve was actually keeping us from the abundant life Jesus offers.
Taking up our cross is a daily choice, not a one-time decision. Each morning, we must pick up that cross again and choose to follow Jesus, even when it’s difficult. This supernatural work of the Spirit transforms us from the inside out, making us people who belong completely to the Lord.
Bible Verse
‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’ – Galatians 2:20
Reflection Question
What specific ‘conveniences’ or ‘comforts’ might God be asking you to die to in order to follow Him more fully?
Quote
We die to the way we want to live. We die to our conveniences, we die to our comforts. We die to our sin, we die to ourselves. Why? Because that is the route in which we are alive to Christ.
Prayer
Jesus, help me to understand what it means to take up my cross daily. Give me courage to die to my own way of living and to trust that Your way leads to true life. Make me willing to sacrifice my comfort for Your glory.