Carrying Your Cross

Somewhere along the way, many of us picked up the idea that following Jesus should make life smoother. That if we’re struggling, we must be doing something wrong. The Bible says the opposite. Jesus told His followers plainly: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). The cross was not a metaphor for minor inconvenience. He was honest with them about the cost — and honest that it was worth paying.

If your walk feels hard right now, that is not a sign you’ve failed. It may be a sign you’re actually walking.

The struggle is not the exception

Jesus never hid the difficulty. “In this world you will have trouble,” He said — and then, in the same breath, “But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Both halves are true at once. The trouble is real. So is the overcoming.

The people whose testimonies fill this library did not arrive at faith and find their problems dissolved. Many found the hardest seasons came after they said yes. Addiction still pulled. Old wounds still ached. Doubt still visited. What changed was not the absence of the burden but the presence of Someone carrying it with them.

Notice He does not offer a life with no yoke. He offers a better one — His.

What the hardship is doing

It helps to notice that not all hard seasons are the same. Some weight we pick up on purpose — a cost we take on because we’re following Him into something. But much of it we never chose at all: the illness that arrived unannounced, the loss we didn’t see coming, the wound someone else inflicted. If yours is the kind you didn’t choose, hear this clearly first — it is not a punishment, and it is not evidence that you did something wrong. It simply came, the way hard things come to everyone who lives in this world.

One thing needs saying plainly. Carrying your cross never means staying somewhere you are being harmed. If you are in an abusive relationship or an unsafe situation, getting yourself to safety is not running from God’s call — it is wisdom, and it is right care for the life He gave you. If that is where you are, please reach out today to someone you trust, or to a local support service.

Scripture keeps making a claim that sounds strange until you’ve lived it: that suffering, in God’s hands, is not wasted. “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3–4).

This is not a call to enjoy pain, or to pretend it doesn’t hurt. It’s a promise that God is doing something in the difficulty that He could not do any other way. The heat that feels like it’s undoing you is often the same heat that’s forming you.

You are allowed to find it hard. You are allowed to say so — to God, most of all. The Psalms are full of honest complaint offered up in faith. Bringing your struggle to Him is not weak faith. It is faith.

You were not built to carry it alone

The image of “carrying your cross” can sound solitary. It isn’t meant to be. When Jesus fell under the weight of His own cross, Simon of Cyrene was pulled from the crowd to help carry it (Luke 23:26). Even He did not carry it entirely alone.

If you are in a heavy season, tell someone. A pastor, a friend further along the road, a community that has walked what you’re walking. Isolation tells you that no one would understand and that you’re a burden — both are lies the enemy is fond of. The body of Christ exists, in part, for exactly these days.

The road is uphill in places. That was never a secret Jesus kept from us. But you are not walking it alone, it is not without purpose, and it does not end where the difficulty is. Keep going. The One who asked you to follow is the same One who has already gone ahead.

Recommended

Recommended channels, ministries and resources for walking through hard seasons will appear here as we find them.

We’re always looking for more ways to help people carry what’s heavy. If you know a ministry doing good work in this space, let us know.