Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24 KJV
The words to this hymn were the last words of Sadhu Singh as he and his family were martyred for Christ in India in the 1800’s. Though not all of us will die a martyr’s death, we must all follow Jesus, wherever he leads us to go. When He made this call to his disciples, they didn’t know all the answers, or what the future would hold. If that is where you are, do not give up or turn back. Christ never asked us to understand, to always keep a smile or to succeed at everything we do. He asks us to follow so that we may be with Him when He leads us all the way home!
When I encountered this verse today, I immediately remembered the song “Open Our Eyes Lord.” It was written in 1976 by Bob Cull, became one of the favorite worship songs of the 80’s and is still famously used as the intro to David Jeremiah’s teaching. But the question put before us this morning is more than even the one that Jesus asked Bartimaeus just before his healing, “What do you want me to do for you?” Today’s challenge is, “What would I do if God helped me to see Jesus right now?” – Would I worship and be thankful? Go home and sing His praises? Or would I do as Bartimaeus did and follow Jesus along the way?
And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23 KJV
Last night I had one of those “aha!” moments while we were watching our favorite television show, “Better human, better dog” with Cesar Milan. I love watching Cesar walk into a home where people have uncontrollable dogs, who are barking, biting and lunging, and in just a few moments, slip a leash around their neck and get them to sit down quietly next to him. Cesar calls this transformation “Calm surrender” and it reminds me of today’s verse. Just like those uncontrollable dogs, I sometimes struggle with what the master expects of me and end up barking at others, hurting those closest to me and in general making a mess our of things. I know what choices I need to make, but the problem isn’t the knowing, it is the trusting God enough to surrender to it.
Now the good news for those like me is that while Cesar Milan may be the dog whisperer, Jesus is the people whisperer! He isn’t at all intimidated by our lunging at our leashes, snarling and making a ruckus. He knows what we need most of all is calm surrender. But in order for that calm surrender to happen on the inside of our hearts, there must first be an invisible transaction of faith. We must trust him enough, every morning, to allow Him to slip the leash around our neck. We do that when we believe that God’s leash, called the cross, is not put meant to strangle us, but to lead us. We can calmly surrender our lives to Him, because we know He has come to give us a better one. When we lie down quietly at His feet, God can drop the leash, because He knows that what keeps us connected to Him is not that leash, but our hearts. Then when we calmly surrender, God can open the door and lead us out to all the good things He has planned for our daily walk with Him!
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