Luke 9:23-27 Take Up Your Cross
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: August 14, 2018 Luke 9:23:27
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
(Understanding the Text) This was said to the crowd and the disciples. “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). I wonder if it was said especially to Judas Iscariot. Jesus knew that Judas’ frustration with Jesus’ methods and trajectory would eventually lead to Judas giving up on following Jesus and instead, trying to force Jesus into using His power to conquer. Was this message trying to reach Judas?
(Application / Revelation of God) Luke says to take up the cross DAILY while Mark simply says to take up the cross. Since we cannot literally die daily for Jesus, this must have a figurative meaning. If we lose our life figuratively, what are we losing: death to self, death to worldly ways, death to separation from God, death to dreams that would hurt our relationship to Jesus. I must determine to choose to deny self every day. The cross was not about death. The cross was about rejecting self-preservation and meeting the needs of others even to death. Jesus says that in order to follow Him, we have to deny ourselves and struggle against the current of this world. We have to be willing to drag around the symbol of shame of this world in order to be fit for the next world. This passage is all about the contrast of self-preservation and denying self. It is about shame. Will we be ashamed of Jesus or happy to claim Him?
Jesus promises a reward for struggling against the horrors of the world we live in. There will be a better world later. When this war is over, there is the glory of living with God. We are to keep fighting every day, but we don’t fight by aggression. We fight by choosing to not react. We deny the part of ourselves that wants to hit back and protect our lives. We choose every day to let this life go. Anything that hurts God or others must be released daily. Even though others are hitting and hurting us, we have to accept it as part of their death struggles and keep on trying to rescue them from the enemy. This passage seems to be about death, but instead it’s about saving our fellow human beings from death, not through our own efforts, but by not being ashamed of Jesus and simply following His lead day after day. This is not a call to aggressive action. This is a call to following where Jesus leads without responding in selfish ways to those who attack us as we follow.
(Revelation of God) Many times Jesus can only tell part of what He knows. This is partly because we simply could not understand and partly because knowing ahead of time will not help us. However, sometimes it feels as though He really wants to share with us. He really wants us to know and pieces of information slip out. Here Jesus is hinting at the transfiguration. Jesus knows that in eight days He will get to taste heaven again. In eight days, He will meet with His friends Elijah and Moses and with His Father to finalize the plans. He is looking forward to being in the glory of heaven away from the stench and taste of sin for a few hours. He wants His disciples to understand His anticipation and tries to tell them how knowing that heaven is before them can help them to face the death surrounding them in this world. He hints that some of them will get to taste heaven. Was Jesus disappointed at the disciples’ reactions at the transfiguration?
(Application) Whenever humans come into contact with the glory of God, they tend to react in fear. If we cannot face our fears on this earth, how will we be able to enjoy living in the presence of God, who inspires so much awe in those who are in His presence that it is called fear? The only answer is to follow Jesus and keep our eyes firmly fixed on Him.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is to never forget that this world is not right. It is a warzone and nothing that happens here is normal. Jesus wants me to be victorious, but the only way to do that is to not fight in the way of this world. Instead, I must fight by not being conformed to this world. I must fight by imitating Jesus who would not break a reed. I need to fight by letting Jesus transform me into a heavenly being rather than remaining an aggressive angry selfish creature. I need to fight by letting Jesus take care of me and remaining connected to Him. Teach me to be gentle with the ungentle, patient with the aggressive and angry, and to let You always take care of me. Don’t ever let me go.