One day several years ago I asked the Lord to show me a spiritual man, someone I could emulate, someone I could use as a role model. I thought the Lord might bring to my mind someone I knew, some respected minister, or some saint from the past. But suddenly He showed me a picture of Jesus on the cross - naked, bloody, bruised. In my spirit it was as if someone had placed my bare hand on a hot stove. I immediately jerked it away. And then the Lord began to speak to me: "Look at his nice clothes. Look at his nice home. Look at his nice car." I felt the Lord's words pounding me. "Look at all the friends he has. Look at how he is respected and honored. Look at how successful he is! Look at his ministry! Look at the praise he receives! There! Hanging there! There is your spiritual man!"
We have it pretty twisted in our minds, don't we? We think of being spiritual as something different, don't we?
Jesus said unto his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Mat. 16:24
There is only one reason for you to take up a cross and that is to hasten your death. Bearing the cross does not lead one to become Time magazine's Man of the Year. It leads one to Calvary. The cross leads to death.
And if you take up your cross - and you do have a choice -, you will find that it is not small, it is not easy, it is not light, it is not comfortable, it is not without splinters, it is not without rough edges. It is heavy, ugly, and is designed to wear down one's flesh and allow death to occur.
Death to self, death to this world. Death to the spirit of Adam in our souls.
The cross is associated with tears, pain, loss of blood, and suffocation. The cross is shunned by the natural man. And rightly so. It revulses. It grieves. It is completely contrary to what most of us are looking for - an easy life.
And it is only a work of God within our hearts that gives us the slightest desire to take up our cross and even then our flesh cries out against the first prick of wood.
May God help us.