Take Up Your Cross and Follow JesusSample

Invited to Follow Jesus to the Cross 

Jesus is inviting us to follow Him. Are we willing to accept His invitation? Where was Jesus going? He was going to Jerusalem to suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes, be killed, and be raised on the third day (Matthew 16:21). Why? To reconcile a lost world back to Himself. 

Jesus invites us to join Him in this task by entrusting the ministry of reconciliation to us (II Corinthians 5:18-20). Are we prepared to be Jesus’ followers? If we are not fulfilling, or are unwilling to fulfil this one task, then we are not His disciples at all. We need to decide whether we are Jesus’ disciples or not. 

What would this task of being a disciple of Jesus involve? 

There will be persecution (II Timothy 3:12). There will be fiery trials, which will try us (I Peter 4:12-14, I Thessalonians 3:3-4). These trials will be used by God to purify us (I Peter 1:6-8). Jesus Himself is our role model for the suffering (I Peter 2:21) and He said that we will be hated by the world (John 15:19-21). 

Do we therefore go about with a sad and dreary outlook to life? No, not at all because Jesus has overcome the world! (John 16:33). 

Thought to ponder

Will you be able to say, “When the roll is called for the disciples of Jesus, I’ll be there?”