The fullness of life God has aligned for you cannot be received when you’re holding on to something else. If you’re clinging to your plans, God’s plans have no open hand to land in. If you’re focused on your idea of happiness, you miss the opportunities for true, deep, lasting happiness God has designed for you.

So what do you want, Sis? Do you want your life your way, or do you want the life God has available for you that promises to be beyond anything you could imagine. Those are God’s words, not mine. Isaiah 55: 8-9, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve decided I DESPERATELY WANT higher thoughts and higher ways so I can live a life that is far beyond anything I could imagine. I don’t kinda want it. I don’t sorta want it. I’m not one foot in and one foot out with wanting it. No, I desperately want the life God has for me.

Now it’s time for you to decide. Do you want your plans? Do you want your idea of happiness? Do you want your way? Do you want your timing? Or, are you trusting God is above all, sees all, knows all, and holds all, and therefore his way is always better than your way, his plans are immeasurably better than your plans, and his timing is infinitely better than your timing.

That’s where I am on this journey of life. I’m absolutely certain at this point if God is in it, I want it. I want everything single thing he has for me. I want to do everything he has created me to do. I want to be available for my assignment. I want to be in position for partnership in purpose with Jesus. I want it, I want it all, and I want it bad. However, I’m even more certain if God is not in it, I don’t want it. I mean I don’t even want to touch it. I don’t want to entertain it in my thoughts. I don’t want to be talking about it. I don’t want to dance with it. If God’s not in it, I don’t want to even be in the same room with it.

Looking back, I realize how many tables I’ve desperately wanted to be at that were never meant for me. How many times I wanted to sit with the wrong people, have the wrong conversations, and make the wrong plans. I prayed for a seat at the wrong tables. Whew, thank you Lord for denying my foolish requests! In my bible there’s a round pink sticky note on Matthew 21 where Jesus goes into his temple and knocks over the tables, and that note says, “Father, forgive me for the times I craved a place at a table you would have flipped.”

So, how do we stay on the path God has for us? How do we sit at the appointed tables with the right people aligned by God? How do we make sense in the nonsense and see the right way when there are so many ways to choose from? How do we refuse the temptation to settle for what’s easy and what’s right now, and fight for the fullness of life we were created for? How do we ever get ourselves good enough to be used for divine purposes?

Here it is … Jesus says in Luke 9: 23-24, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

Understand, Jesus isn’t talking about you DYING, he’s talking about YOU dying. The you that is naturally selfish, self-centered, self-focused, self-serving. You always think of you first. Of course you do, because you’re you. And Jesus says that YOU has to die. The you that tries to control everything, the you that manipulates things to serve you, the you that twists the story the way you want it, the you that wants it your way … that has to be cut off, fall away, shrivel up and die.

Why? Because your life can’t be all about you.

Some translations say it like this, “You must deny yourself.” Yes, that means what it sounds like. You must tell yourself NO! You’re denied! No, you don’t get to control this. No, you don’t get to push this or force this. No, you don’t just get to say what you want to say. No, you’re not entitled to a darn thing. No, your excuses aren’t going to fly here. If everything you’re doing in the day is centered around you, then Sis, you’re building your life around YOU and this is all going to come crashing down.

If you’re going to follow Jesus, you’re going to have to start denying yourself. Your focus must be turned from what you think you want and how you feel about it, to the Master of your life and his plans for you.

Some of us are continually crashing through life and wonder why? Well girl, it’s really hard to get far down the road when you’re just staring at yourself in the mirror. This isn’t all about you. This isn’t all about what you think you want. And this certainly isn’t all about how you feel right now. Get over yourself and get back to Jesus.

Jesus says you must “take up your cross daily.” To everyone in the crowd that day, they knew exactly what a cross meant. A cross wasn’t a religious symbol they wore around their neck. A cross was one thing … it was a cruel instrument of death. When a convicted criminal was facing death on a cross, they were forced to first carry their own cross to their place of crucifixion. No one willingly carried a cross. It was a death sentence. It was a complete surrender of fate, walking to the end.

So, when Jesus said take up your cross daily, of course he couldn’t mean literally die daily. But instead, he’s saying, every day surrender knowing you can’t save yourself. You can’t fix this. You can’t control this. You don’t have the answers.

But we have one tremendous benefit the crowd listening that day didn’t have. We know the rest of the story. We know our Jesus died on his cross for us. We were on his mind as he hung on the cross and said, “It is finished.” His sacrifice for you was complete. You were saved. Your forgiveness was paid for. Your life was redeemed.

Now, won’t you live in that? Won’t you live in the redemption he died for? A redeemed life lives different, let me tell you! A redeemed life looks at less than perfect situations and sees the blessings all around. A redeemed life knows this isn’t all about them, their way, their timing, or their feelings.

Do you want to follow Jesus today? Give up your own way, take up your cross today, and follow him. You can’t do this on your own, and you were never expected to. You can’t save yourself and you can’t fix this … why? Because if you could, then it would be about you … and girl, it’s not about you!

The MSG translation of Luke 9:23 says, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat, I am.”

Jesus, you lead, we will follow. We humble ourselves, take our focus off ourselves, and look to you for every next step. Thank you for leading us into a life that is higher, better, and far beyond anything we could imagine.

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