Deeper Life #89

For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

—Matthew 18:11

HAVE PEOPLE SCATHED AND SHAMED you because of your passionate devotion to the Lord of all suffering? If so, has your love of Jesus Christ prevailed? Have your own self-culture and education impeded your walk with the Lord, or has your love for Him been so passionate that you “love not your own life”?

John Wesley said, “To abandon all, to strip one’s self of all, in order to seek and follow Jesus Christ to Bethlehem where He was born, to the hall where He was scourged, to Calvary where He died on the cross, is so great a mercy toward us, that the blessing of salvation and redemption is given but through faith in the Son of God.”

The Cross of Jesus stands unique and alone. It is not our cross. Our cross is what is manifested before the world—the fact that we are sanctified to do nothing but the will of God. Our cross becomes our divinely appointed privilege by means of His Cross.

Prayer Thought: To bear my cross for You, Jesus, is my desire in every circumstance of life.

SUGGESTED READING: Matthew 18:7–14