#carryourcrosses

[youngdisciples]

Our verse today is such a very famous verse. Since almost all people who claim to be Christians, or who are Christians know how to pray the “Lord’s prayer” because it is the prayer that the Lord has taught us. Many people don’t want it to be called the Lord’s prayer because of our verse today. If it’s Christ’s prayer, then He is like asking to be forgiven, but He has no sin. Yet, we have to remember that Jesus taught us this so that He will make a good example of how or what our prayer should be. 

Now, let us go deeper and reflect on this verse. It’s a prayer of us asking to be forgiven as we also forgive others. Yet, there are a lot of misunderstandings towards this. Some people think that we will gain the forgiveness of God through forgiving others. However, we must understand that we are saved by grace, thus we are forgiven because of the grace of God. Our forgiveness is not based on how good we are, but we are forgiven because we are pardoned and fully given grace. 

So, we have to remember that this prayer is a prayer after we are already saved. After all, our repentance is an ongoing cycle. We must always acknowledge that we are wrong and that we need forgiveness every day. Indeed, we are saved and have already received the forgiveness of God. Yet we also have to always acknowledge and confess our sins to God so our sins will be forgiven. Thus, this is why we pray this prayer that God will forgive us and that we can also forgive others just as how He forgave us. We must not forgive so that we will be forgiven nor we are forgiven because we forgave. 

Therefore, the paradox lying behind this verse is simply that our forgiveness completely belongs to God, and forgiving others is a manifestation of how we are first shown love and forgiveness by God. So, we must always keep in our minds that we are not doing anything to earn our forgiveness, but it is entirely because of the grace of God. We must forgive others because we know that we are already forgiven and have shown grace even if we don’t deserve it. Thus, even if other people don’t deserve it, we are to forgive them so that we will manifest the love of God and the grace of God.

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[youngdisciples]

The salvation offered by God is not cheap nor it comes from cheap grace. A lot of people preach salvation as it came from a cheap grace. However, we have to understand that our salvation is not cheap and it doesn’t come from cheap grace. It costs us Jesus Christ-- the innocent Christ, who has not committed any sin nor has done anything wrong. Our salvation costs us the treasure of heaven, so let us not take it lightly and let us be thankful that God has blessed us with His grace and mercy through Christ. 

Now, since we know that our salvation is not cheap, and it costs so much, we must also know that to have it is only through one step that people might find it difficult and people who don’t know the essence of being a Christian find it easy. Our way to salvation is easy: it is through Christ alone and whoever receives Him will be saved. However, it is not as easy as it seems. Believing and accepting Christ is so hard for us to do because of the fact that Christ is the complete opposite of us. He is righteous, He is holy, He is good, He is sinless, and He obeys the Father. However, we, on the other hand, are bad, unholy, sinful, and disobedient. 

So, as people who are bound to sin and death, it is very hard for us to obey God, and to follow Christ. Thus, it may seem to be so easy, but it is indeed hard because our hearts tend to walk away from God. That is why our verse today reminds us that being saved by grace through faith means following Christ and following Christ means becoming His disciples. However, Christ said in our verse today that whoever does not carry his own cross will never become His disciples. So, meaning we have to carry our own crosses. We have to confess our sins and acknowledge that we are really sinful. We have to submit everything to Christ and let Him rule over our lives. 

Therefore, for us to fully understand the salvation of Christ, we have to accept Him and believe in Him. Yet, we can never fully accept Him and believe in Him if we still don’t want to give the keys of our lives to Him. Thus, accepting Him and believing in His mighty work must first come from inside of us. We must first be willing to carry our crosses, acknowledge that we need a Savior and after that, we will become His disciples. We will be able to follow Him and mirror His love and grace towards other people so that we will be able to become better witnesses of His love and mercy too.

For more daily reflection, verse, and encouragement, you may follow us. You can also like, follow and visit us on:

Website: https://youngdisciples.org/

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