Mark 8:34-38 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: February 20, 2018, Mark 8:34-38
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 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. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
(Understanding the Text / Application) I wonder if some of the 70 were in that crowd. Jesus speaks of three necessities for following after Him. First, we must deny self. Many times when I read this, my automatic interpretation is all the don’ts. Don’t do this and don’t do that. However, the real meaning is that selfishness is the great sin that separates us from God. The first step in following Jesus is to get ourselves out of the way. In order to clearly see Jesus we must move past our selfish desires, conceits, and righteousness. We have to stop focusing on ourselves in order to focus on Jesus. The second necessity is to take up my cross. This may mean to accept hardship, but I think it may have more to do with choosing to follow Jesus no matter where He leads even if it means leading to horrible pain and death. It may be that there are only two necessities-denying self is one. Taking up the cross and following Jesus may be the other. I know that the cross here does represent death because of the later words.
The soul is something that many modern people doubt. They think that this is our only life, so they have no reason to worry about the soul. Christians should be more focused on the rewards of the afterlife than the rewards of this world. This world does not really have any rewards worth having. Money just brings problems and no money brings problems. Fame brings problems. Being the highest in your profession is no satisfaction in the end. The only goal that brings lasting reward is the goal of following Jesus where He leads and prioritizing above and beyond anything this world has to offer.
(Revelation of God / Prayer) We can give nothing for our soul. Only Jesus could pay the price for our soul. We are redeemed and should live like it. Jesus thinks we are precious and worth the price He paid, but if we are embarrassed by Him, He will be ashamed of us and how we handled the priceless gift that He gave us. I never want You to be ashamed of me. I always want to make You smile when You think of me.
(Revelation of God) The angels belong to Jesus. He was Michael, the leader of the angels before He became Jesus, the King of men. He was above the angels and became lower than the angels in order to lift us up to heaven. The angels of heaven love Jesus and follow His commands always. The fallen angels of this earth hate Jesus and do everything they can to thwart Him because they rejected His leadership. They hate us because Jesus values us so much. They feel no kinship with those they tempt away from Jesus. Instead, they feel satisfaction that they have snatched someone away from Jesus’ healing touch. Whether in love or hate, all the angels are focused only on Jesus. Yet, we humans are so arrogant that we think that we can ignore Jesus and go on with our pitiful lives.