HI, I'm new to Christianforums and this is my first time to post. I was reading Imitation of Christ the other night and I realized some things that I thought other people might be able to relate to. The chapters I read were about how few lovers of the cross there were in the world. I realized that I was not one of the few. I loved Jesus for all the joy and peace that He gave me, and for how much He loves us all. But when it came time to sacrifice and suffer for Him, I wasn't there. We must be willing to be despised by everyone and to suffer greatly for His sake if we need to. It's even a beatitude. We should be joyful when this oppurtunity presents itself. Indeed, any suffering that comes our way should be accepted as our cross, and offered up as a sacrifice to God. If we do this it is very pleasing to God. If we run from the cross we will still suffer, but it might be in vain. We must be willing to be spit on and kicked and rejected by the world, by everyone for His sake. It usually doesn't come down to that, but we must be ready if it does. And no matter how much we suffer, we know that Jesus suffered more for our sake, and no amount of suffering is proportional to the joy Heaven. We must totally submit our will to God's, no matter what. If we do this, we will have God as our comfort and joy in Heaven and on Earth. I'm stealing a lot of this from "Imitation", so read the chapters on the few lovers of the cross and the royal way of the cross to get the whole picture. Anyway, none of this is news or anything, but it's something that I can say I needed to be reminded of anyway. Thanks!
