We All Have Our Cross To Bear

If we are going to be followers of Jesus Christ, we have to deny ourselves and take up the cross. What do you mean by take up the cross? 
People use this phrase today “well we all have our cross to bear” referring to struggles we have throughout life. But here’s the bottom line, your cross to bear is not whatever you find difficult in life. Your cross to bear is “dying to self”; through death do you find life.
You may say “I still don’t understand; what does it mean to die to self?”
Let me give you some examples:

To die to self means…forgiving instead of harboring that grudge.

To die to self means…resisting that temptation to do what everyone else does when you know its wrong.

To die to self means…not having sex before marriage and being faithful to your spouse after.

To die to self means…to put down the remote control and pick up the bible and read it.

To die to self means…to pray when you would rather be sleeping.

To die to self means…to swallow your pride and tell someone about Jesus Christ.

To die to yourself means …to do what God wants you to do and not what you want to do.

Are you dying to yourself and taking up the cross? The fact is when you do this you will experience joy and over flowing life. Paul put it this way in Galations 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live…Yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live, I live for the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” ~ Greg Laurie