No turning back.

Last week we talked about the process that Jesus went through, the whipping, the nails in His hands, the suffocation, all of it until His death. You may be wondering why we are still talking about the cross, after all, Easter is over right? The cross is more than a public holiday, one or two Easter services at church, hot cross buns and some chocolate. The cross teaches us how we are to live our lives as Christians. 

Luke 9:23 says, “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.” We are to take up our cross daily, not at Easter, not when we need something from Jesus, daily. Then once we take up our cross, we don’t sit down and look at it or complain about it, put it all over socials that it’s just too hard! No, we follow Jesus. So to do that we must know what the cross means. 

Last week we looked at an aspect of the cross which was public humiliation, excruciating pain, emotional turmoil, abandonment, it was suffering. The cross was a form of torture, we went through in some detail what Jesus endured as He hung on the cross. We have all or will all experience pain in our bodies at some point in life. Jesus showed us that even when we are in pain, it does not give us licence to walk away from God. It does not give us a right to give up or be mean or rude to the people around us. What pain does is it magnifies what is already in you. 

If you become mean just because you are hangry, maybe you are not as sanctified as you think you are. Luke 23:34 says, “While they were nailing Jesus to the cross, He prayed over and over,  “Father, forgive them,  for they don’t know what they’re doing.” While they were hammering the nails in, He was praying! I am not that saved, I will tell you that. Definitely a work in progress because I can think of a few things I may say, but a prayer of forgiveness would not be top of that list. But that’s the point, the word of God is a mirror that we hold up and measure ourselves against to say, “Yeah I have some work to do there”. 

The cross was suffering. The Christian journey is not one of comfort. Yes, God will comfort us when we go through terrible situations, but our journey is often marked by sacrifice, pain and suffering. What is the cross that God is asking you to carry? I was having a conversation with my pastors recently and I realised that one of the crosses I have to carry in this season is that I may be single for the rest of my life here on earth. 

Choosing Jesus means I can’t just marry a good man. I need to get married to a good godly man who is running his God race as fast as I am and whose calling aligns with mine. For example, I know I am not called to be a missionary to the nations and my calling as far as I know it, is right here in Sydney. If I meet someone who loves Jesus but is called to Honduras, then we each need to put God first and come to an understanding that it may not work. That’s just an example to say the pond I am fishing in is tiny, I need Jesus! Haha! 

I am 38 years old this year. I have been waiting and praying for the right man for years, and I am coming to realise that the longer I wait, the lower the chances of me having my own biological children. Is that an easy pill to swallow? No. It makes me cry to even write that. Does God still do miracles? 100% yes. But even if He doesn’t, even if I remain single and childless until one day I find myself face to face with Him, I want to be able to look up to Jesus and say, “I did it. I took up my cross and I followed You!”

The life of following Jesus is marked by taking up our cross daily. It is suffering. Taking up our cross means daily making decisions that put Jesus first above our wants and needs. Above our will and emotions, above our own desires even if those things are good things. Taking up our cross means sacrificing what’s comfortable, normal or what we may even feel entitled to and stepping into what God is asking us to do. It is counting the cost of following Jesus and saying, “Yes, this hurts me in more ways than I can describe but God is worthy.” In the famous words of the old hymn, “I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back.”

We all have a cross we must bear. What is yours? 

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano