Devo 23: Come up Leaning

Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save His life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

Mark 8:34-35

This invitation of Jesus has completely consumed my thinking. What does it mean to “take up your cross?” The kingdom of heaven is different from anything I have ever known.

If you love your life, you’ll lose it; if you lose your life, you’ll find it. Whoever desires to become the greatest must become the least (Matt.20:26). Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3). Blessed are the meek (Matt. 5:5). Oh God! You are everything we are not. You ask us to be everything we don’t want to be.

What does it mean to “be crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20)? How do we become a “living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1)? How can we be “poured out like a drink offering” (Phil. 2:17)?

These things are all so opposite of the world around us. Life seems to be about how we can get more, be greater, go higher, and feel better about ourselves.

So what do we do? Well, part of the answer is found in a book that hardly anyone reads—Song of Solomon. Yes, Song of Solomon.

I never liked this book until just recently, but I am beginning to see the heart of God in it. I still don’t know it very well, but I do know this—it is a picture of Jesus’ leadership of His Bride.

It is basically a love story. It begins with the love of the Bride being awakened for her Beloved. He pursues her in the beginning. In 4:16, she is so overcome with love that she prays and invites the winds of favor and winds of testing to blow on her garden (north and south winds) In chapter five, the testing comes. The Beloved wakes her from her sleep and then draws away. She chases after Him and gets beaten and has a trials in the wilderness, but she consistently pursues Him.

Eventually, she finds Him, and in chapter eight, someone sees her and says, “Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved?” (8:5). Through the difficulty and trials, she learns to trust Him and trust His leadership. This is the way the Lord leads us as individuals and how He will lead His Bride (the Church) at the end of the age.

In the prayer room, Audra Lynn, a worship leader, sings the song “Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,” and adds her own line that captures my heart every time. She says, “I want to trust you, God. I want to come up leaning.” I wake up singing that line all the time.

Taking up your Cross comes down to trust. Do you trust Him enough to obey His commands? Do you trust Him enough to give it all away to Him? Do you trust Him enough to ask for the winds of favor and winds of testing? Oh, that I could trust Him more!

Like Paul, I want to make it clear: “Not that I have already attained all this, but this one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and pressing on toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12-14; author paraphrase).

Let us take up the cross—whatever that looks like in your situation, and follow Him. We get discouraged at the point in the wilderness where it looks like He has left us, but He allows it so that we learn to trust Him. When all is said and done, we come out leaning on our Beloved.

This week, take 20 minutes a day and focus on the passage in Mark 8 or the beatitudes in Matthew 5. Ask the Lord what it means to take up your cross. Ask Him to help you come out leaning on Him. If you really want to dive into to this trust thing, ask for the North winds and South winds to come—the winds of favor and winds of trial. It’s all about trust.

Love,

Amanda

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