TAKING UP THE CROSS DAILY

Then Jesus said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.”  (Luke 9:23 NIV)

Whoever determines to live no longer to the desires of people, but to the will of God, will soon find that he or she cannot stick to that purpose without self-denial, without taking up the cross daily. That person will, every day, desire something of the world instead of the cross. But one must deny self or deny the faith. He or she will daily meet with some means of drawing nearer to God that are unpleasing to flesh and blood. In this, therefore, one must either take up the cross or renounce the Master. 

-- John Wesley in "A Collection of Forms of Prayer for Every Day of the Week," 1733

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