His Cross, My Cross

Carry Your Cross

"Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Mark 8:34).

This is a very good devotional. An excellent read before you start your day. Yesterday I had two programs to present for the God's Love Outreach Ministry. Both of the nursing homes I was in I felt His presence there. The program for the month was about having fun, being happy. Every time I enter a home I see the looks on the faces of these residents, some I see each month for it is where they live now. Because of their own physical or mental problems they are facing, it is their life now.

I wonder to myself if this is their cross that they are called to bear. We belong to a loving God who I know did not bring this on them and He is there with them to help ease the burden from it.

Toward the end of this devotional the author writes as to how this burden is lifted. He wrote "ripen my wisdom, to deepen my peace, to increase my courage, to augment my power to be of use to others", and that is exactly what I see in these residents. They are always saying, thank you, smiling, even holding someones hand who is hurting. They are using their crosses to help them on, day by day!

[Mrs. Charles Cowman Devotional - Streams in the Desert]

[The cross which my Lord bids me take up and carry may assume different shapes. I may have to content myself with a lowly and narrow sphere, when I feel that I have capacities for much higher work. I may have to go on cultivating year after year, a field which seems to yield me no harvests whatsoever. I may be bidden to cherish kind and loving thoughts about someone who has wronged me--be bidden speak to him tenderly, and take his part against all who oppose him, and crown him with sympathy and succor. I may have to confess my Master amongst those who do not wish to be reminded of Him and His claims. I may be called to "move among my race, and show a glorious morning face," when my heart is breaking.

There are many crosses, and every one of them is sore and heavy. None of them is likely to be sought out by me of my own accord. But never is Jesus so near me as when I lift my cross, and lay it submissively on my shoulder, and give it the welcome of a patient and unmurmuring spirit.

He draws close, to ripen my wisdom, to deepen my peace, to increase my courage, to augment my power to be of use to others, through the very experience which is so grievous and distressing, and then--as I read on the seal of one of those Scottish Covenanters whom Claverhouse imprisoned on the lonely Bass, with the sea surging and sobbing round--I grow under the load.--Alexander Smellie.

"Use your cross as a crutch to help you on, and not as a stumblingblock to cast you down."

"You may others from sadness to gladness beguile,

If you carry your cross with a smile."]

Crosses

I had a dream I walked with Jesus,
carrying our crosses, side by side.
Though mine was so much smaller,
I felt Him lift the burden as time went by.

With each step He looked at me,
His eyes were filled with love
He steadied me when I began to stumble,
giving praise to the Father above.

At first the journey seemed too long,
to carry my cross all that way,
Jesus spoke to me and said,
“It’s not about the burden but what you do through it today”.

So whatever the cross you are carrying
may it become an aide to you,
to help someone else that is hurting
and show them Jesus is with them too.

E. P. Shagott
3/17/10

From God's heart, to mine, to yours,
Ed Shagott