Transcription
Everyone has heard the phrase "carry your cross," but most people have completely misunderstood what it means. And that misunderstanding is keeping thousands of Christians either paralyzed by suffering they cannot explain or comfortable in a faith that costs them absolutely nothing.
Some people hear "carry your cross" and think it means endure your bad marriage, tolerate your illness, accept your poverty. Others hear it and think it sounds too heavy, too extreme, too much for an ordinary person living an ordinary life. But both of those responses miss what Jesus actually said. And if you have ever wondered what following Christ is truly supposed to cost you, this is for you, my brothers and sisters.
Why is this more serious than it seems? Because Jesus did not whisper this. He said it as a condition, not a suggestion, not an optional upgrade for serious disciples—a condition. Luke 9:23 records his exact words, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Three commands in one sentence: deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me, daily. That word "daily" changes everything. A cross is not a season you survive. It is a posture you maintain. And a Christianity that never costs you anything is not the Christianity Jesus described. The problem is that the church has often preached a gospel of comfort so long that the call to the cross sounds radical when it was always supposed to sound normal.
Here is what carrying your cross really means today. First, it means choosing God's will over your own every single day. The cross was not an accident for Jesus. It was a choice. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed in Matthew 26:39, "Not as I will, but as you will." That is the cross before the cross. The surrender before the suffering. Carrying your cross today does not always mean dramatic persecution or public sacrifice. Sometimes it means choosing obedience when every part of your flesh wants to walk the other way. It means staying in the hard conversation instead of walking out. Forgiving the person who does not deserve it. Saying no to what feels good but leads you away from God. Every moment you choose his will over yours, you are picking up the cross. That is not weakness. That is the most courageous thing a human being can do.
Second, it means dying to the version of yourself that lives for approval and comfort. Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Paul is not being poetic. He's describing a real death. The death of the self that craves recognition. That builds its identity on what others think. That makes decisions based on comfort and applause. Carrying your cross means that version of you goes to the cross and stays there. Let's be honest. That is the part most Christians are unwilling to do. We want Jesus without surrender. We want resurrection without crucifixion. But brother, you cannot have one without the other. The life of God only flows through the places where the old self has died.
Third, it means staying faithful in the places no one sees. Jesus carried his cross publicly. But the real weight was not the wood. It was the choice. The same is true for you. Carrying your cross often happens in private. In the moment when you could lie and no one would know, but you tell the truth. When you could indulge and no one would see, but you walk away. When you could quit the calling because it is taking too long, but you stay. Romans 8:17 says that we are co-heirs with Christ if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. The suffering and the glory are connected. You cannot separate them. The faithfulness in the hidden places is what God is building into something eternal.
Fourth, it means loving people who make it costly. This is the one nobody wants to talk about. Jesus went to the cross for people who were crucifying him. Carrying your cross today means extending grace to people who do not deserve it. Serving without recognition. Loving without guarantee of return. It means that the difficult person in your life, the one who exhausts you, the one who has hurt you, is actually an opportunity to carry the cross. Luke 6:27 is not comfortable. "Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you." That instruction only makes sense when you understand the cross because the cross was not efficient. It was not comfortable. It was not fair. It was love at its most costly.
Fifth, it means trusting God with what you cannot control. One of the heaviest crosses is uncertainty. The unanswered prayer. The waiting season that makes no sense. The door that will not open no matter how much you knock. Carrying your cross in those moments means releasing control and trusting that God is sovereign even when he is silent. Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Submission is a form of the cross. Every time you lay down the need to understand everything and simply trust him, you are carrying it.
So, how do you pick it up today? You begin in the morning before the world demands anything from you. You bring yourself before God and you say, "Not my will, but yours." You identify the one area where your flesh has been winning and you surrender it specifically. You choose obedience in the small moment in front of you right now. Not the big dramatic sacrifice, the next small step of faithfulness because that is what the cross looks like on a Tuesday morning. Quiet, intentional, real. The decision is yours, brother. A faith with no cross is a comfortable life with a Christian label, but a faith that embraces the cross is the only one that leads somewhere. It leads to death of the old self and resurrection into something God designed you to become. Hear this. The cross is not the end of your story. It is the beginning of the only story worth living. If today you are ready to stop caring your comfort and start carrying your cross, write this in the comments, "Lord, not my will, but yours. Today I choose to follow you." Let that be your declaration. And if this message spoke to your heart, subscribe to Faith Sketch because here everything is built on the word of God.