Take Up Our Cross – Ulisses Soares
The cost is steep, but the reward is priceless. Come unto Him and He will bless you beyond measure!
“the Savior emphasized that all those who are willing to follow Him need to deny themselves and control their desires, appetites, and passions, sacrificing everything, even life itself if necessary, being entirely submissive to the will of the Father—just as He did. This is, in fact, the price to be paid for the salvation of a soul.” – Ulisses Soares
No one can be saved in ignorance and I think as we study the importance of having Christ in our lives, the more we recognize the role He plays and the true significance of being close to Him. So learn and take up your cross and follow Him!
“All of us need to open our minds and our hearts in order to more fully understand the relevance of taking upon ourselves our crosses and following Him.” – Ulisses Soares
The more we dedicate ourselves to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we should be avoiding distractions that make staying on the covenant path a challenge. We can’t be faithful believers in Christ and hang on to habits that are in opposition to Him.
“Our determination to cast off all that is contrary to God’s will and to sacrifice all we are asked to give and to strive to follow His teachings will help us to endure in the path of Jesus Christ’s gospel” – Ulisses Soares
Taking your cross upon you is no small feat. Even the Saviour stumbled as He bore the weight of it. We will stumble and we will fall. But remember that Jesus Christ bore that weight first. You can always pray to your Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ and ask for help. As you strive, as your carry your cross and as you seek His help, you will find strength and growth and the desire to be better. You will find that you have become better, in this life and the next.
“Accepting the Savior’s invitation of taking upon yourselves your crosses and following Him means continuing with faith on the Lord’s path, maintaining a pattern of dignity, and not indulging in worldly habits that will eventually take away our hope in God’s love and mercy.” – Ulisses Soares
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are guiding our lives. They have our best interests at heart with every thing that we go through. Those experiences may not be fun and they might just be downright awful, but there is always a reason and something we can learn from it. Trust that they are leading and guiding and walking besiding!
“There is always hope in God the Father and in His plan of happiness, in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice, and in living Their loving commandments.” – Ulisses Soares
You’ve never failed until you given up trying! Don’t ever stop! Keep on learning and growing and becoming better. Mistakes happen! forgive yourself and forgive others and move on. Often, the hardest part of overcoming our past is forgiving ourselves and allowing ourselves to move on. Don’t allow your past to dictate your future. Christ suffered so that wouldn’t be the case. Don’t waste the gift He has given you. His atonement is enough to overcome any sin and any addiction. Trust in Him and move forward!
“Please never give up after subsequent failures and consider yourself incapable of abandoning sins and overcoming addiction.” – Ulisses Soares
You only fail when you stop trying! Satan wants you to feel like you are beyond repair and beyond your Saviour’s reach. But the reality is, the Plan of Salvation has already accounted for the mistakes you’ve made, and the mistakes you are going to make. You are never beyond the reach of your Saviour! Come into Him, plead for His help and never stop trying!
“You cannot afford to stop trying and thereafter continue in weakness and sin!” – Ulisses Soares
Christ’s grace is sufficient for you, in fact, it is so great and all-encompassing that it accounts for all the mistakes, errors, and sins you and I will ever make. The Plan of Salvation accounts for that, but it doesn’t account for failure, which is when we quit trying! Look to Christ and live. Pray in the name of Jesus Christ, to feel of God’s love for you and you will. Then you will have a better understanding of your infinite worth and Christ’s infinite grace.
We may receive His grace before, during, and after the time when we expend our own efforts.” – Bruce C. Hafen
There isn’t a challenging this in this world that we can overcome on 100% our own merits. We need others. We need a Saviour. We each need to come to the realization that we need the Saviour. As we come unto Him, we will learn that we need Him just as much in our good times as in our bad times. He will help us to overcome all and that includes overcoming ourselves.
“I testify that as we continually strive to overcome our challenges, God will bless us with the gifts of faith to be healed and of the working of miracles. He will do for us what we are not capable of doing for ourselves.” – Ulisses Soares
Forgiveness is for the forgiver, not for anyone else. That doesn’t mean that forgiveness is always easy, but it is essential. Hurt, anger, bitterness and refusing to forgive only binds us to the past, while forgiving allows us to move forward.
“We cannot repent for other people, but we can forgive them—by refusing to be held hostages by those who have harmed us.” – Ulisses Soares
The end game. The carrot on the stick. The goal each of us have is to return to live with our Heavenly Parents once more. The bask in the their eternal glory and to continue to learn and grow, until, one day, we can become like Them. But the journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step. You need to decide what your next step will be. But you have people who are wiling and able to help you on your journey. Call your Bishop and move forward.
“Those who have taken upon themselves the name of the Savior, trusting in His promises and persevering to the end, will be saved and may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.” – Ulisses Soares
Taking His name upon us should remind us that we are meant for more. We should be humble enough to recognize that Jesus is the way. His plan is ‘THE’ plan. We need to put our money where our mouth is and trust that God has our best interest in heart and let go of our own reservations. Bear up your own cross, and move closer to God.
“We must remember that taking our cross upon ourselves includes being humble and trusting in God and in His infinite wisdom.” – Ulisses Soares
There is very real danger in conditioning our faith on blessings and rewards, especially immediate rewards. That is not how God works. The rewards He offers far supersede all blessings we can expect in the here and now. Please take time to study Faith in the Bible Dictionary, then compare it with your own understanding of Faith. Ensure your Faith causes you to align with the will of the Father by making changes in your life.
“We cannot condition our faithfulness to Him by imposing upon Him a deadline for the answers to our desires.” – Ulisses Soares
“Our Father in Heaven is keenly aware of each of us. He is invested and knows us better than we know ourselves. If we want to know that version of ourselves, we need to take time to do the things He has asked.
“We need to trust the Lord enough to be still and know that He is God, that He knows all things, and that He is aware of each of us.” – Ulisses Soares
There is nothing we cannot do with God. If He is on our side, or more appropriately, if we are on His side, we will be able to move mountains, divide the seas and call down legions of angels to help defeat our enemies if it be His will. But if not, we’d still have our God, and that is enough to do all things that are asked of us.
“He is our help and our shield.” – Psalm 33:20
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