What Does It Take To Carry Your Cross - The Power Of The Spirit

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Stay here and watch with Me. —Matthew 26:38

 

“In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular “Gethsemane” experience of our own. But we refuse to go, saying, “No, Lord, I can’t see the meaning of this, and besides, it’s very painful.” […] The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. […] “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:4). “They” refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events— our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension— and the disciples have now been invaded and “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Our Lord had said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). This meant that they learned to watch with Him the rest of their lives.”  CHAMBERS

 

Jesus was facing the culmination of His purpose on this earth, the Cross.  The way of the Cross is exhausting when we try to walk it in our natural strength.  Personally, I think that is why the disciples slept.  They were in proximity to the weight of the Cross that Jesus was facing and it was physically exhausting.  Jesus said (Luke 9:23) “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”  The Cross is not easy to carry.  It requires a decision to lift it, certainly, but more than that, it requires the Spirit in us to carry it.  The difference between the events described in  Matthew 26 and Acts 2 is the presence of the Spirit in the same men.  And so it is for us.  We have been born again … but as Jesus told Nicodemus … (John 3:5-7) “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”

 

Jesus was speaking to a spiritual truth that is as true now as it was then.  The journey begins and ends with self-denial, total devotion to God, and absolute dependence upon the power of the Spirit to live our new lives.  You will exhaust yourself and fail if you try to follow Jesus any other way.  ELGIN