Choose To Follow Daily

“Choose To Follow Daily”

By Zach Wood

Luke 9:23

“Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’”

The Apostle Peter makes a confession that Jesus Christ is the true Son of God.  Right after, Jesus challenges each of the disciples and says that following Him is going to be challenging and difficult.  The one word that stands out to me in this passage is “daily”.  The choice to completely follow Christ is a decision each of us makes every single day as soon as we begin our day.

We tend to wake up in the mornings with many things on our minds.  We have so many things to tend to and places to go.  We have our jobs, families to take care of and various activities to get around to.  Our daily lives are filled to the max these days.  No wonder we get so consumed with what we need to get done and that our daily lives with Christ often get tucked back into the corner of the day as it begins.

If we are really sincere and committed to a life of living for Christ, we must completely surrender everything to Him and pick up our cross to follow.  We must surrender to Him and allow Him to be in control of the day, leading and guiding us.  However, most often, our schedules lead and guide us.  We take care of what we need to do and often consult Christ’s guidance when we get into a situation that’s problematic or dealing with people who are frustrating us.

If we are going to fully follow Christ, we must be committed to a life daily lived through Him.  This is a life that should begin from the time we awake to the time we lay our heads down to the pillow at night.  It’s a choice we make every single day.  Are we going to follow Him?  Are we going to obey Him?  Are we going to let Him completely lead? 

To truly follow Christ means we completely deny ourselves of what we want to do and let Christ lead us to what He wants us to do.  He must be in the lead and we must carry our cross.  Too often we are comfortable and barely carrying any cross because that’s the life that is most comfortable.  If we are to claim a life lived in and through Christ, we must count the cost of truly following Him and be willing to deny ourselves each day.