What does the cross of Christ mean for you and me today (in each of our todays)?
  Choice of will: Taking up the cross of Christ ~ today.
  Endurance: Endure by not growing weary and losing heart as you take up the cross of Christ ~ today.
  Focus: Fix your eyes on Jesus as you take up the cross of Christ ~ today. 

  Why is the cross so important to followers of Christ?
The Father’s good pleasure:
(NASB) Colossians 1:19-20 “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” 

What Jesus did when He died on the cross?
(NASB) Philippians 2:8 “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
  The humility of God the Son – obedient to dying on a cross!  He loved you! 

What the followers of Christ are to do?
(NASB) Luke 9:23 “…‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’”
(NASB) Hebrews 12:1-3 “…let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” 

  What is happening in many countries today?
  Followers of Christ are being mistreated, harassed, and even killed, because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

  Taking up our cross is to deny self and put the Lord Jesus first in our thinking, our words and actions.
  To take up our cross is to fix our eyes on Jesus and to follow Him.  We are to put into action His words (that’s obedience).  Does this mean life will be easy and free of tension and pain?  No, but we have Christ in us!  We have His comfort when we mourn, we have His strength when we are weak…and the list goes on and on.  We are called to deny ourselves and to embrace Christ. 

  What is your cross and mine?  To deny what we want when we want it and yield to God’s will and what He wants!  Wherever our will ‘crosses’ God’s will – that is our cross.
  What is your cross – this day?