JESUS IS ASKING YOU TO CHOOSE

“Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke Him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’ Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’ Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”  (Matthew 16:22–24 NIV)

The disciples had to make a choice. They could not follow Jesus and follow themselves at the same time. That would be like having two different maps to two different locations and trying to follow both at the same time. If any wish to come after Him, they must let go of the wish to control their own plans and be willing to follow Jesus wherever that may lead. How many of us try to pursue earthly gains and spiritual gains simultaneously? The truth is, we cannot hold two desires at the same time. This doesn’t mean that we won’t enjoy success in our lives and businesses, but only one pursuit can control our minds and our hearts.

But this surrender doesn’t just ask us to lay down our lives and our desires. No, we also have something to pick up. It asks us to willingly pick up our cross. Just as the cross became the instrument of Jesus’s earthly death, it becomes the place of our own death. Death to controlling our lives. Death to our own plans. The cross is an intentional and daily commitment to give up control of our lives for the sake of Christ.

Jesus asked His disciples to make a choice. Every person will come to a point when they, too, must make the same choice. Paul declares in his letter to the Philippians, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (1:21). You cannot live in two different directions. Jesus is asking you to choose. Are you willing to make that choice today and carry your cross? 

-- Susan O. Kent in “Altar’d: The Transforming Power of Surrender”

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