Daily Devotional

Word of the Day

The Cross Costs Everything

Is Jesus the Lord of your life? Have you been nailed to the cross with Him? Jesus is not Lord if you are standing down on the ground saying, "Praise God! I appreciate You dying for me. I acknowledge You as Lord." For Him to be Lord, you have to get up there with Him. You must die with Him. I am crucified with Christ. I present my body.

"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death [the cross]; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10-11). Most of us want to live in resurrection power, but we don't want to go the way of the cross. You can't get the power of the resurrection without identifying and conforming to His death--the humbling of yourself through obedience, even to the death, the denial of self. It becomes a choice--not whether to eat this, drink that, or go there. The choice we make is whether He is Lord or not, whether we will walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before" (3:13). Old things pass, Corinthians says, all things are now new--a new direction, a new purpose, new goals. Are they? You forget the things that are behind--personal ambitions and goals. That no longer governs your life. "I always thought I'd like to do this for a living or marry this type of a person." If you will go to the cross, you forget everything that was behind and say, "I am ready to do whatever You want me to do from this moment on. I have no personal agenda. I don't need family, mothers, fathers, houses or lands; I just need Your presence. I count it all loss for the excellency of the knowledge of God." Are you ready to embrace the cross? The cross will cost you everything.

Do you want to know that power of resurrected life, of victorious living, of walking in the spirit? Then forget those things that are behind. Forget all your personal ambitions and your personal traditions. Forget your own personal image and your own personal press clippings. Become of no reputation and press toward the mark, the prize, the high calling of God (Phil. 3:14). Set a new goal. My day will not be complete until I've made full pursuit of Christlikeness. I have become all that I could be for Jesus today. Tomorrow is another day. What have we done today to become of no reputation? What have we done today to humble ourselves to obedience of the cross, offering up the loss of all things for the excellency of the knowledge of God? That's what the cross is all about. Have you died today yet? If you can die today, it will assure us of life tomorrow, because if you lose your life, you will gain it.

Beloved, if you are afraid to die, then you don't believe in the resurrection. There's a power in resurrected life. If you're afraid to die--if you have to stay in control of your life--you do not believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead. You do not believe that there's power in death to bring you to life. The seed must fall into the ground and die, or it abides alone (John 12:24). There is power in death. There is life in death. If you are not willing to die, it's because you don't believe in the resurrection. Give us that grace, Father. Give us that faith, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Previous Devotional | Next Devotional

• Subscribe to the Daily Devotional
• Unsubscribe from the Daily Devotional