“Not the
slightest trace of resentment”. That is a difficult character set to develop,
and it certainly takes a supernatural work of God in me – the creation of a
disposition similar to Jesus’. Are you there yet?
The last
clause, “and the cross will come along that line always”, was removed in the
modern versions of this devotional. I added it back in. Oswald Chambers’ wife,
Biddy, compiled this wonderful devotional after his early death in the Egyptian
desert during WWI. Sometime, near the mid-20th century, “the cross” lost an
extremely important part of its meaning. Aside from being the instrument of
great torture, trial and death to Jesus, for the first 19 centuries of
Christians “the cross” also meant our instrument of trial and death to worldly
things.
Luke 9:23. King James Version ... “And He said to them all, If any man will
come after Me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me..” Matt. 16:24.
If we are
willing to deny ourselves, that is, our right to ourselves, the Providence of
God will provide for each of us a cross that we can carry that will empower us
to grow in godly character and in our ability to identify with Christ. Like
Simon the Cyrene, it is a privilege like no other. We, like Simon, must follow
Jesus as He struggled up the Via Dolorosa to Calvary.
Of course, this
doesn’t fit modern-day evangelicalism where struggling, suffering, and trials
are not taught.
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