Surrender: Pick Up Your Cross Daily! – by Alicia Briscoe

 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  – Luke 9:23 NLT

Mark 8:34-35, Jesus said, “If anyone wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.” 

God wants us to surrender ALL to Him. I am currently doing a 40 Day Surrender Fast for the fourth time in two years. This study has reminded me that to surrender my will for His will daily. It has encouraged me to be intentional about a surrendered lifestyle.

Every day we have a pleather of decisions to make. But one decision that we must make that trumps all other decisions we face is “Do you want to live life or just exist as the walking dead?”  Although the decision is ours to make Jesus gives us the answer in His word, Deuteronomy 30:19 - “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

I believe the scriptures are encouraging us to choose a sin free life. My spiritual father would breakdown a life of sin like this, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, cost you more than you want to pay.”  I don’t know about you, but I decided to pick up my cross daily by being intentional about abstaining from my sinful nature, asking God for help when I am weak, letting go of my fleshly desires, trusting God and leaning into His power for my life.

He wants your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole body. He wants ALL OF YOU!  Often, we may equate carrying our cross to be a burden or struggle. The world would have us to believe it does not take all of that or that your life will be boring and uneventful. I’m a living witness that if you begin pursuing God, reading His word a surrendered lifestyle begins to unfold before you and it will be more than short of boring or uneventful! 

I encourage you to avoid losing your life, pick up your cross, follow Jesus, surrender your will for His, it will be the best decision you ever make!




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