Luke 9:23
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Jesus’ walk up to Calvary with His cross on His back was taken one step at a time. And our walk behind Him as His followers works the same way. We take the things He’s asked us to carry and keep taking one step after the other. It is a lifelong journey but a day-by-day process. Each day we must decide whether we will serve sin or serve God, whether we will do what we want to do or follow God’s will. We must decide if we are dedicated to Him or to ourselves, to His cause or our own.

It wasn’t an easy journey that He took. There were plenty of scoffers and scorners along the way. There were people spitting and shouting, mocking and deriding. But He kept on going despite it all. Our journey may not be easy, but it will never be as hard as the one Jesus took. People may hate us and persecute us, and some even die because they choose to follow Christ, but we will never have to bear the weight of sin like He did. His journey led Him to the cross, but ours will lead us home.

Jesus was not thinking about Himself during that painful walk. He wasn’t concerned with His own injuries, what He had just endured and what He was facing once He got to the top. His mind was on pleasing His Father, on obeying to the end, on giving His life for the ones He loved. Jesus denied Himself completely, and we are to do the same. We should deny ourselves and spend and be spent in giving, serving, loving, and obeying our Father and His will for us.

There are things we’ve been asked to bear for the Lord. Will we set them down and walk away, or will we keep going? Will we forsake Him and turn back instead of continuing on? The Christian life is a daily journey, a step-by-step journey of learning and growing and serving. Jesus will never give us more than we can bear, but He does ask us to take what He’s given us and follow after Him every step of the way. As we imagine Him there on that fateful day bearing His own cross to Calvary, let us allow that to spur us forward any time we feel we can go no further or that our strength is gone. Jesus persevered until He could say, “It is finished.” Let us be willing to do the same in whatever we’ve been asked to do for Him.