If the Bible doesn’t challenge you, you’re not reading it right.
That’s kind of a hard opening line. Especially for me, a cheerleader, who wants to encourage you and make you smile. And it goes against everything “they” say to do. You need to start with a clever story. Engage your audience. Let them know what they’re going to gain from reading your blog. What’s in it for them?
And normally, I endeavor to do that. But not today. Today you get what God has been dealing with me about in its basic, raw form.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also]. (Matthew 16:24 ampc)
This. This is where I’ve been soaking. This is where I’ve been meditating in His Word, and it has been challenging me. No. More than that. It’s been kicking my butt.
Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Me.
Deny – reject, refuse, disown, disregard, disavow, lose sight of, forget himself and his own interests
There are times when I think I’m getting better at this until something triggers that old flesh nature and I see just how undenied it really is. How many times do I want my way? How many times do I want recognition? How often are my own interests front and center before my eyes? Too often. Help me, Lord!
Take up – to raise or to carry
This isn’t like lifting weights. You pick them up. You put them down. Pick them up. Put them down. Look at all that muscle. No. It means to raise it. To carry it. To pick it up and take it with you wherever you go! That does not always describe me but I want it to. Give me strength, Lord Jesus, to not just pick it up but to carry it all the way.
Cross – exposure to death or self-denial
If we’re going to carry it, we need to know what it is. We can look back on what happened 2000 years ago and say, “Look! Jesus carried His cross. I need to carry mine.” We have a reference for it. The disciples didn’t have that vantage point. They didn’t know Jesus on the cross because He hadn’t gone to the cross yet when He said this.
But self-denial was something they could relate to. They’d seen Him do it daily. Hourly. Minute by minute. And they knew if they were going to be a disciple of His, they would have to give themselves over to constant self-denial like Jesus did. Do I? Shamefully no. But, I press on.
Follow – Be in the same way with
I like how the Amplified Classic translation puts it. “Conform wholly to my example in living, and if need be, in dying.”
Jesus was our example in all things, and over the next several weeks, we’ll look at these different areas one by one. Humility. Surrender. Abiding. Boundaries. Praying. Loving. If we are going to conform entirely to His example, we need to know what that looks like.
One final scripture by the apostle Paul.
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death… (Philippians 3:10 nkjv)
We all pray this, “I want to know You Jesus and the power of Your resurrection!”
And we stop there. But Paul didn’t. He went on to include something else he wanted to know. The fellowship of His sufferings. The partnership of His hardships, pains, and afflictions.
You don’t really hear anyone praying for that anymore. We want the power! But let’s think about this. Maybe the full understanding and knowledge of the power of His resurrection comes on the heels of the fellowship of His sufferings.
Maybe we can’t truly know or experience the power until we’ve walked through the suffering. The cross wasn’t the only thing Jesus suffered. There was the daily self-denial that was as hard on His flesh as it is on yours and mine.
So what’s in it for you today? A challenge. A challenge to deny yourself. A challenge to follow Him. A challenge for less of you and more of Him. This should be a challenge we face daily until we move to heaven because we’ll never arrive. There will always be something else to surrender.
If the Bible doesn’t challenge you, you’re not reading it right.
I’ll leave you with this thought. If we aren’t doing any denying and we aren’t experiencing any suffering, are we truly a disciple?