Day 7
Daily Spiritual Habits of Disciples
If I want to know what matters to a person I look at what they do daily. I look at the things that they are most consistent with. There are things that we deem to be so important that we do them daily–sleep, eat, bathe, speak to the people we live with, and work (on your job or in your home) to name a few.
If God is your priority then He gets to design your daily habits. Over the next five days we will study the dailies– those things that God has instructed us to prioritize and do daily to help us stay connected to Him.
Jesus instructs you to deny yourself and take up your cross to follow Him daily.
Denying yourself and taking up your cross daily helps you to present your body as a living sacrifice.
I recently heard a minister say, “A living sacrifice can get off of the altar at any time!” We get to choose if we will remain on the altar and take up our cross daily because, unlike the sacrifices of the Old Testament, we are living at and during the time of sacrifice. We have laid ourselves on the altar agreeing to be bound1 by God’s Word, but we also maintain the ability to untie ourselves from scripture and rise from the altar of sacrificial living at any given moment in time.
When our desire and flesh no longer want to be bound by God’s requirements, commands, or standard, we can get up. Knowing this, Paul doesn’t merely write to the Romans to present their bodies a living sacrifice, he implores with urgency, “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.”
Denying yourself is counter cultural and goes against the flesh. Jesus instructs us to deny our own worldly lusts and desires and instead take up our cross to follow Him. Note that Jesus did not say to take up “the cross,” He instructs you to take up your own personal cross.
Your cross is unique to you. What God requires for you to do, fulfill, or carry is your own, and in order to take that on each day you have to first lay down your own plan for your life. As Paul says, we must die to self daily.
God, in His wisdom and love, has given us the key to sustainability and endurance. We are to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. Imagine reading that without the “daily.”
Deny yourself and take up your cross. Period. That reads and feels heavy and almost without guidance or instruction. The “daily” lets us know that this is doable, sustainable, and that we get a chance with each new day to grow further and deeper with Him. We get to take it one today at a time®. You don’t have to carry the weight of trying to get a lifetime right in one day. His burden is light.
Lesson 6: You must choose to die daily so that you can pick up your cross to follow Jesus daily, this is your reasonable service.
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus, thank you for the call to take up my cross daily to follow you. Thank you for your daily mercies. Strengthen my heart and mind that I may do your holy will. Give me clarity on your will for my life. Help me to die daily, and minute by minute throughout this day that I may present my body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to you. I ask it in your name, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Scripture
Luke 9:23-24 NKJV ”Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.“
Romans 12:1-2 NKJV “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Titus 2:11-14 NKJV ”For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.“
1 Corinthians 15:31 NKJV ”I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.“
Psalms 68:19 NKJV ”Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation! Selah“
Psalms 90:12 NKJV ”So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.“
2 Peter 3:8-9 NKJV ”But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.“
Matthew 10:38-39 NKJV ”And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.“
The fruit of being bound by God’s Word is freedom. What a beautiful paradox!