Mom Heart Moments #239

He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

I AM SOMEWHAT OF A POLLYANNA at heart and would love for everyone to be happy and living in harmony with each other. However, God has not allowed that to be my story. I have many conflicts that it seems will never resolve, challenges, issues, and the typical and atypical stresses that come from being in a fallen world. Many of these anguishing difficulties I have had to bear for years, waiting for God’s answer to my prayers.

But in this moment, with only Him and me talking, I realized that these “crosses” are just what my heavenly Father wants me to take up. These spots of pain in my heart are just the places in which He wishes me to trust, to worship, to accept limitations as part of the story of my life that can glorify Him if I am willing to bear it all joyfully, right where I am.

My Christian life cannot consist of one round after another of, “I am Yours, but I know You will let me whine and complain about this particular issue or person because it is hard for me.” If these crosses are what He wants me to pick up and carry, they are part of my purpose in this world, and somehow, when I carry them as a gift, I can better reflect His glory.

So what cross is He asking you to bear by faith and as a point of worship to Him? Is it a trying child? A difficult marriage? Irrational or angry or passive family members? An illness? A death? A disappointment? It is only as we pick up our crosses and carry them to the place of dying to ourselves and living for Him, in every circumstance, that we will live in freedom, grace, love, and worship.

What cross will you carry, for His glory, today?