How Do We Deny Ourselves, Take Up Our Cross, And Follow Him?

“When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” John 8:34 NKJ

Sometimes we don’t know why God asks us to do certain things until long after the interaction with Him has taken place where He has made the request. But if we are obedient, He is faithful to reveal his reasons in time. I used to read this passage of Scripture and I have heard dozens of sermons on it but never really understood it the way I do now. My understanding came from a request God made of us in regards to our belongings, two years ago, that He has just recently revealed the reason for the request within the last month. You see when God initially called us to St. Louis His Spirit asked me if I was willing to sell everything I owned to follow Him.

Of course in the emotion of the excitement at the time I quickly agreed and said, “Yes Lord, I will do anything to follow you!” But as the days went by after He made His request, my fleshly attachment to my belongings overrode His voice and I began to think I had misunderstood Him. I thought to myself, “Surely He means to sell out to Him 100% in all areas, not physically get rid of my expensive belongings!” But as I wrestled with this thought the Spirit of God once again made the request. This time I realized He meant that He wanted us to put a price tag on everything we owned and trust in Him to provide as we answered the call to follow Him.

This verse came to mind on several occasions during the process of sorting through our stuff and determining what we would let go of and what we needed to keep. It was then when I came to understand that our cross that Jesus is talking about is our purpose in life and denying ourselves is letting go of anything that inhibits us from fulfilling that purpose. For us our purpose was planting the church and opening the resource center in St. Louis and denying ourselves was in letting go of all the physical belongings that would weight us down on the journey. You would think that when this revelation came it would have been easy for me to part with my belongings; but it wasn’t!

I had expensive antiques and keepsakes that I had collected over the years and I enjoyed all of them very much! Believe me there was an inner tug-of-war going on in my members as I released my grip from these items. But from the moment the first person walked through the door of our house that weekend I was at peace with our decision to obey the voice of God. And as more people came I found myself actually giving away precious possessions as I heard people express interest in them who could not afford to buy them. The one who impacted us the most was a husband and wife who were there looking at a brand new kitchen set that my daughter had received for Christmas that year but never played with.

I heard them talking about how much their granddaughter would love it but they didn’t have the $100.00 to but it. I stopped them on their way out and asked about their granddaughter. They told me their daughter was a meth addict who had just been sentenced to prison for a couple of years and how they took their granddaughter in to care for her. They said she was traumatized by the recent events and how they didn’t have any of the items they needed or wanted to have in place for her at their house. Their story broke my heart and I felt the overwhelming presence of God surrounding us and told them to hang on.

I went in and told Sam what happened and said that I wanted to give them the kitchen and as much girl stuff that we had. He said, “Baby if that is what God is leading you to do then by all means do it!” I went out to them and told them to fill their truck up with everything we had that they needed! They began to cry and thanked us over and over again! This event impacted me greatly! And this was just one of many times that weekend we gave stuff away to people in need. At first we thought this was the reason God made the request of us but in actuality He didn’t reveal the real reason until two years later when the call came to move to St. Louis a month ago. You see the moving company and trucking company that offered to help us gave us three 7x7x5 moving crates for our belongings. If we had not done what we did back then, we wouldn’t have been able to move when God opened the door and told us to go because we would have needed at least 10 of them for our journey and that wasn’t available!

But since we were obedient in the beginning we were able to put all but a few belongings that we need for the journey and for the transition time in those three crates! I cannot even tell you how grateful I am that we listened when the Spirit asked us to deny ourselves and to take up our cross and follow Him because that obedience lifted the burden from our shoulders that would have been there if we had held onto those possessions. As we sit now with the three crates loaded and in storage and only a small trailer to fill we are at total peace and ready to hit the road that leads to the Promised Land of St. Louis, MO.

I share this story because I want to encourage you to ask God to reveal what your cross (purpose) is in life and for Him to reveal what areas in your life you need to deny (release) to Him in order for you to follow Him without the weight of burden tying you down. For some of you it may be in letting go of possessions that are collecting dust in your house. For others it may be in releasing your control over relationships or circumstances. And for others it may be something completely different. But for those who are obedient no matter what it is; the result is always the same. God is glorified and a great testimony is given of His faithfulness and lives are changed, including your own! And that is what the Christian life is all about, bringing glory and honor to God by fulfilling our purpose and then testifying of His great faithfulness along the way as we share His love and grace with the people He brings into our lives!