It WAS Hard.

Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)  Why?  Because Jesus took up His cross and died for all of our sins.  That's why.

Tonight I realized the fact that I haven't been surrendering my life up to God each and every day like I should.  The verse above says we should pick up our cross DAILY.  Not when we feel like it or when it's convenient.  Daily.  It's a simple act. We give our lives to Him because He gave His life for us.  Allow me to put this into a perspective that the Lord showed me to help me understand.

Jesus gave ALL of His life for us.  He bore the cross and took our shame.  He was the perfect sacrifice.  No one else could take on all of mankind's sins.  He did it with complete love and without complaint.  Yet we complain how hard our own lives are?  No has ever made a complete mockery of us.  No one tells us we are not who we are on a daily basis.  People don't follow us around in hoards which prevents us from the alone time we all need.  One of our friends will never betray us to the point of our own death.  No one has whipped our backs 39 times leading us to almost bleed to death.  We've never had to carry a cross to our death nor hang there for six hours for all of mankind's sins.  We were never resurrected and we are not sitting at the right hand of God.  In short, Jesus gave it all away for us and IT WAS HARD.  Never once did He complain or grumble against the world.  He loved the world and understood the fact that it wasn't entirely their fault.  Their world had corrupted them.  Darkness had set in but He was the light.  He did not forced His way into hearts by weapons or an army but with LOVE.  Jesus can share in our sufferings because he himself went through the same sufferings.  Jesus knows temptation.  IT WAS HARD but Jesus never gave in.  Jesus kept moving forward knowing that if He stayed in step He would join His father in heaven one day.  Life is hard but I would beg to differ that His life was harder but through it He reached a glory that far exceeded it all.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."(2 Corinthians 4:17)

It WAS hard.  It doesn't have to be anymore.  Praise God.  He kept moving forward.  Will you?

Kelsey Johnson

Lift It Up!

The act of lifting something up means we have to hoist it upwards.  When we pray, essentially we are just hoisting our prayers upward to God the Father in His heavenly throne.  "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and grace." (Hebrews 4:16)  No prayer is too small and no prayer is too big.  Why?  Because there is nothing to small for God and there is nothing to big for God.  He is God.  He spoke, and everything around us came into existence.  Whatever problem you are facing whether big or small, He is more than able and more than willing to help.

With that being said, do you ever find that when you lift something up to God in prayer you feel lighter somehow?  Pretty cool, eh?  God's son, Jesus, already took all of our sins, problems, guilt, shame, EVERYTHING upon Himself when He died on the cross for our sins.  However, because we live in a fallen world life isn't filled with rainbows and unicorns.  Life is hard.  Satan tries to diminish the power of the cross by bringing things into our lives that Jesus has already taken upon Himself.  If Jesus died on the cross for everything, then wouldn't it make sense to lift it back up to Him?  Reason with me here.  If you feel lighter after praying and getting something off of your chest, was it supposed to be there in the first place?  Not at all.  What we struggle with in our lives is meant to be lifted back up to the one who has already taken it away.  He wants to be active in our lives and guide us through the trials of life.  He wants us to "lift up holy hands in prayer" (1 Timothy 2:8).  Dispute with a friend?  Financial trouble?  Loss of a loved one?  God is ready to help you.  He already did a long time ago, you just have to lift it back up to heaven and put it back into His hands where it belongs (literally).  You'll find that when you start to implement more lifting into your spiritual life, moving forward in the physical becomes a little easier.

Kelsey J.