Take Up Your Cross

From Damon Sallee:

Take Up Your Cross

I want to thank God for the challenges that He has been giving me in my spiritual walk with Him. He's been dealing with me a lot recently on giving him 100%.
Through the past few months, I've been doing a lot of spiritual warfare. I'm thankful for that. It lets me know which side I'm on.

I’m finding that spiritually, you get out what you put in. An awesome Christian experience isn’t a default. It’s something you must work at. I’m finding God’s blessings become greater as I surrender more of myself to Him.

We all fight the same kind of battles: spiritual lethargy, failures, and struggles unique to our personality. Sometimes while fighting those battles, we miss what God is really trying to tell us. David prayed that God would search him and know his heart, that He would try him and know his thoughts and that He would see if there was any wicked way in him.

I pray the same prayer for myself, but I’ve found in times past that when I would pray that prayer, one thing would come back to my mind over and over, so much so that I began to push it out of my mind and say, “Lord, I know about that, and I’ll try to do better in it and fix it when I get some time.”

I’d make some resolutions, and maybe some promises, and that would appease my conscience a little, but it never took care of the problem. I’d find myself asking, “Okay, but is there anything else?” And then I’d focus on something different but would fail to address what He had dealt with me about in the first place.

God started dealing with me about that. You can’t choose to disregard His instructions and expect to maintain a joyful spiritual experience. Disobedience costs a lot. My experience suffered greatly because I kept pushing Him off and making excuses. Telling God, “I’ll do it later,” seemed to be better than saying, “No. I won’t do it.” But it wasn’t. God dealt with me with the intention that I would follow Him immediately.

I think of 2 Corinthians 6:2. “… I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

When God deals with you, then is the time to take care of the problem, unless He instructs otherwise. If you don’t know how to go about it, that doesn’t give you a valid excuse to push it off. Seek for wisdom earnestly until He gives it to you.

I am finding that this is part of “putting in” for your salvation. It’s not an easy thing. Seeking His will and direction takes dedication and much determination. Doing it requires humility, submission, and trust that He knows what is best for you.

When I realized His will and what action He wanted me to take, but chose to push it off, my spiritual growth came to a standstill. Can God bless me in my disobedience? I can attest to the fact that He can’t. My life became very miserable. The peace and joy that had been in my soul was replaced with inner turmoil. God through His abundant mercy kept dealing with me, and slowly I began to see that peace comes through obedience and surrender to His will, regardless of what it costs.

Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”
He also said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

I thank God from the bottom of my heart that He has shown me the importance of unconditional surrender and submission of my will to His will. That’s all that He asks of me, to be “a living sacrifice.”
Now His Holy Spirit is content to dwell within me, and spiritual peace is restored. I still have trials and hard times. I still get confused about things, but there’s one thing that is of great comfort to me. It’s Joy. What is Joy?

J-esus O-wning Y-ou

I have willingly put myself into His hands, to do His will no matter what it may be, no matter what it costs, because Jesus owns me, and “He will only permit what is best.” His thoughts are “of peace, and not of evil, to give me an expected end.”

And this brings me to my current testimony.

ELS #87 “I Know My Name Is There”

My name is in the Book of Life,
Oh, bless the name of Jesus!
I rise above all doubt and strife,
And read my title clear.

Yet, inward trouble often cast
A shadow o'er my title,
But now with full salvation blest,
Praise God! It's ever clear.

While others climb thro' wordly strife
To carve a name of honor,
High up in Heaven's Book of Life,
My name is written there.


I know my name is there. I know that God will “perfect that which concerneth me” and that I can trust Him to guide me in the future decisions of life. I can trust my life in His hands. And now I choose daily to put it into action. And I ask for His strength to do so.

I encourage anyone who reads this to take up your cross and follow Him with renewed dedication, realizing that your strength is not of yourself but is given by Him as you ask for it and meet the requirements that He has shown to you.

- Damon Sallee