Take Up Your Cross - Self-Denial & Suffering

Jonathan Edwards  A Treatise On Religious Affections 

Passing affections easily produce words; and words are cheap. Godliness is more easily feigned in words than in actions. Christian practice is a costly laborious thing. The self-denial that is required of Christians, the narrowness of the way that leads to life, does not consist in words, but in practice.

William Gurnall The Christian in Complete Armour

Dost thou complain that (the) heaven-way is rugged? By the oftener walking in it...will make it smooth.

Thomas Manton on Matthew 6:10 "Thy will be done..."

The great contest between God and us is whose will shall stand: God's will, or ours? When we pray that God's will be done, we do in effect renounce our own will. Self-denial is one of the first principles of Christianity. When we choose our will, we choose Satan's will too.

Thomas Watson 

“The Godly Man's Picture, Drawn with a Scripture Pencil, or, Some Characteristic Marks of a Man who is Going to Heaven”

https://www.gracegems.org/Watson/godly_mans_picture7.htm

Self-ease, self-ends, whatever comes in competition with (or stands in opposition to) Christ's glory and interest—must be denied! Self is the great snare; self-love undermines the power of godliness. Self-love is self-hatred. The man who cannot get beyond himself will never get to heaven.

A Divine Cordial, “An Exhortation to Love God”

https://www.ccel.org/ccel/watson/cordial.ix.html

Love to God is the best self-love. It is self-love to get the soul saved; by loving God, we forward our own salvation. "He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." (I John 4:16) And he is sure to dwell with God in heaven, that has God dwelling in his heart. So that to love God is the truest self-love; he that does not love God, does not love himself.

William Cooper  "How Must We in All Things Give Thanks?”  in Puritan Sermons 1659-1689 

It is a very high privilege to be conformed to Christ. (Romans 8:29) What can make us conform more to Christ than a cross? How then can we bring our hearts to the holy and heavenly frame to give thanks in affliction?

1. Pray earnestly for the Spirit of God.

2. Labour for an awareness of sin. A humble, broken heart is a very thankful heart.

3. Behold every mercy that comes to you, and know that all that passes through his hands is for your benefit.

4. Bless God for mercy in answer to your prayers. Thank him also for many unasked blessings.

5. Consider being driven nearer to God as a special mercy. Mercies (in affliction) are cords that draw us to God, and so thank him.

Horatius Bonar  God's Way of Holiness

We have our cross to bear, and our whole life is to be a bearing of it. It is not Christ's cross that we are to carry; that is too heavy for us, and besides, it has been done once for all. But our cross remains, and much of a Christian life consists in a true, honest, decided bearing of it. Not indeed to be nailed to it, but to take it up and carry it--that is our calling. To each of us a cross is presented when we assume the name of Christ. Strange will it be if we refuse to bear it; counting it too heavy or too sharp, too much associated with reproach and hardship. The Lord's words are very uncompromising, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). Our refusal to do this may contribute not a little to our ease and reputation here; but it will not add to the weight of glory which the resurrection of the just shall bring to those who have confessed the Master, and borne His shame, and done His work in an evil world.

With the "taking up of the cross daily" (Luke 9:23), our Lord connects the denial of self and the following of Him. He "pleased not Himself”; neither must we, for the servant is not above his master. He did not His own will; neither must we, for the disciple is not above his Lord. If we endure no hardness, but are self-indulgent, self-sparing men, how shall we be followers of Him? If we grudge labor, or sacrifice, or time, or money, or our good name, are we remembering His example? If we shrink from the weight of the cross, or its sharpness, or the roughness of the way along which we have to carry it, are we keeping His word in mind, "Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that l am baptized with" (Matthew 20:23)?

The cross on which we are crucified with Christ, and the cross which we carry are different things, yet they both point in one direction, and lead us along one way. They both protest against sin, and summon to holiness. They both condemn the world and demand separation from it. The kingdom is in view, the way is plain, the cross is on our shoulders; and shall we turn aside after fashions, frivolities, pleasures, and unreal beauties, even were they all as harmless as men say they are?

F.B. Meyer  Our Daily Walk

"Follow Me!" Our Lord is always making this challenge (John 21:19-22). It means bearing the cross, but we must be willing to follow Christ until, like Him, we fall into the ground and die —die to our own ambitions, our love of power and influence, our own strength and gifts, that we may make way for God to work through us.

It is not necessary for any man to make a cross; it is our part simply to take up that which God has laid down for us. The cross is no exceptional piece of asceticism, but it is the constant refusal to gratify our self-life; the perpetual dying to pride and serf-indulgence, in order to follow Christ in His redemptive mission for the salvation of men. And it is in proportion as men live like this that they realize the deepest and truest and highest meaning of life.

A.W. Tozer 

        The Warfare of the Spirit

The man with a cross no longer controls his destiny; he lost control when he picked up his cross.

        The Divine Conquest 

Before all who wish to follow Christ the way lies clear. It is the way of death unto life. Always life stands just beyond death and beckons the man who is sick of himself to come and know the life more abundant. But to reach the new life he must pass through the valley of the shadow of death.

(But) the man who takes his cross and follows Christ will soon find that his direction is away from the sepulcher. Death is behind him and a joyous and increasing life before. His days will be marked...by "joy unspeakable and full of glory." 

Jeremy Taylor 

 An Exhortation to the Imitation of the Life of Christ

https://books.google.com/books?id=m09OAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA21

Since our way is troublesome, obscure, and full of (obstacles) and dangers, apt to be mistaken, and to (discourage our effort), Jesus commands us to mark His footsteps, to tread where His feet have stood. He not only invites us forward by the argument of His example, but He hath trodden down much of the difficulty and made the way easier and fit for our feet.

He knows our infirmities, and Himself hath felt their experience in all things but in the neighborhoods of sin; and therefore He hath proportioned a way and a path to our strength and capacities…(in) the comfort of His company and the influence of a perpetual guide.

The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying, Section 2, “A Prayer For The Grace Of Patience”

Lord, I am unable to stand under the cross, unable of myself, but be Thou pleased to ease this load by fortifying my spirit, that I may be strongest when I am weakest, and may be able to do and suffer every thing that Thou pleasest, through Christ who strengtheneth me. Let me pass through the valley of tears, and the valley of the shadow of death with safety and peace, with a meek spirit, and a sense of the divine mercies, through Jesus Christ.

Alexander Maclaren (paraphrased)

Lord, put Thy blessed cross on my back; make my will Thy will; and fill my heart with Thy love.

Only then shall mind and body move in complete freedom and joy.