50 Day Journey of Joy – Take Up Your Cross
Week 6 Monday, March 22nd, 2021
Read Matthew 10:34-39 NLT
34 “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.
35 ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36 Your enemies will be right in your own household!’
37 “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.
38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.
39 If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.
Questions for Meditation
- In John 14:27 Jesus says He gives us peace, but in this passage, He says He did not come to bring peace but a sword. How is this true?
- Have you experienced or seen the division that comes in a family when someone follows Jesus? How can we still be a peacemaker in that situation?
Pray
Thank Jesus for giving you inner peace and ask Him to help you love those who respond negatively to your faith in Him. Ask Him to help you stay strong and continue to live for Him.
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