Jesus said:

“… If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

If you truly want to follow Christ, you must be willing to suffer for Him. No one follows Christ without carrying the cross. An evangelist might tell you to give your life to Christ, and everything will be beautiful for you. It’s true, everything in your life will indeed be more beautiful because you have given your life to Christ. However, there will still be suffering. Jesus Christ said that when we come to Him, He will take away our heavy yoke, but He never said He would leave us without a yoke. On the contrary, He says:

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:29-30

Jesus said He would give us His own yoke to bear. His yoke is lighter than what we carried before being born again, but it is still a yoke.

The reason many people stumble when temptations come is that they were not prepared to suffer for Christ. You must be so determined to follow Christ to the point of saying, if necessary, literally: “If I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4:16). When you do this, your strength will be great, and you will not falter in the day of adversity (Proverbs 24:10). Those who do not stumble in the days of adversity always reap great benefits when adversity is over.

In Genesis 39, after all Joseph went through at the hands of his brothers, the greatest test of his life came when his master’s wife wanted him to lie with her. He said:

“How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9).

He was ready to face all the consequences that would come as a result of his obedience to God. He went to prison, but as soon as God saw that he willingly bore his yoke, He arranged for him to meet Pharaoh, and by the time we get to Genesis 41, he had become the Prime Minister of the greatest nation on earth at that time. Suffering for Christ

Your destiny depends on your answer to this question: Are you willing to suffer for Christ?

This text is an excerpt from the book “The Open Heavens: A Daily Guide to Intimate Communion with God 2024” written by Pastor Enoch Adedjare ADEBOYE. Suffering for Christ

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