The Cross I Didn’t Choose
Matthew 27:32–37
Matthew 27:32–37 (NIV)
As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews.
My purpose was wrapped in someone else’s decision.
The more you grow, the more you carry.
It’s often the cross you didn’t choose that ends up changing you the most.
An innocent man’s burden was placed on the back of a guilty bystander.
If you’ll carry it—God will use what hurt you to shape what’s healing in you.
Preference
Sometimes God will put you in an uncomfortable seat to get you to an unshakable state.
God doesn’t shape you through what you prefer—He shapes you through what you endure.
Plan
Disappointment is the gap between what I expected and what I experienced.
If God can’t change your plans how can he improve them?
Pride
What you pick up will determine what you have to put down.
But God doesn’t grow faith through control—He grows it through trust.
The cross you didn’t want may carry the grace you didn’t know you would need.
Simon didn’t ask for the blood—but the blood found him.
Purpose
Mark 15:21 (NIV)
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.
Your obedience becomes their inheritance.
Romans 16:13 (NIV)
Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord—and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.
Luke 9:23 (NIV)
If anyone wants to come after Me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Me.
But when life handed me a cross—God handed me purpose.
The cross wasn’t punishment—it was placement.
