In Luke 9:23 Jesus tells us: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
As Christians, we call ourselves followers of Jesus. It’s the very essence of what it means to be a disciple—our goal is to follow Him. But while we love the idea of being a follower of Jesus, we often struggle with actually following Him. It’s easy to say we follow Jesus when life is smooth and His path aligns with our own, but what about when His direction challenges our desires or requires sacrifice?
When I baptize someone, I ask them a question: “Have you confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life?” That question has two parts: Is Jesus your Savior? And is Jesus your Lord? The Savior part is easy to accept. If we truly recognize our sin and brokenness, why wouldn’t we want to be rescued—to be saved? But the Lord part—that’s where the real challenge begins.
To declare Jesus as Lord means recognizing His authority and submitting to His will. It means making Him the central focus of our life, allowing Him to lead instead of trying to lead ourselves. But that’s hard for most of us. We like control. We like calling the shots. And often, without even realizing it, we try to get Jesus to follow us instead of truly following Him.
In Luke 9:23, we see that following Jesus isn’t just about believing in Him—Taking up our cross means surrendering to His will. It means trusting His way over our own, even when we don’t fully understand it.
Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” We’re told here to submit to Him in all our ways. The problem is we have this way of compartmentalizing our faith. Our Church stuff goes to God, while we try to handle everything else. But God doesn’t want part of us—He wants ALL of us.
How are we doing when it comes to following Jesus? Are we truly allowing Him to lead, or are we still holding onto control? When was the last time we asked God if we were doing what He called us to do? When was the last time we sought His guidance about our work, family, finances or our future? Jesus doesn’t just want to be our Savior—He wants to be our Lord. And when we fully surrender to Him, we discover that His way is always better than our own. May we choose today to truly follow Him—not just in word, but in every area of our lives.
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