Take up your cross, every day, and follow Him. Then look back over all forty days.
Forty days ago you started out honest about your disappointment. Today you read the passage this whole class has been heading toward: Jesus’s invitation to follow Him, daily.
Read it, and do the session as on any other day. Then, below, you will find everything you wrote over the last six weeks. Read it back slowly. Notice what God has been doing, even on the days that felt like nothing.
The final gather
If you can, finish together, with your friend or your group.
Read it together. One person reads today’s passage aloud, someone retells it, and you ask the questions together.
Look back. Each person shares one thing from their forty days: a day that mattered, an “I will” that changed something, or a moment where God may have been closer than they knew.
Recommit, out loud. Each person says, in their own words, what putting Jesus first will look like this coming week. Make it specific: a name and a day. Who will you study the Bible with? Where will you serve with your eyes open?
Pray for one another. Pray for each person by name, and for the church you belong to. Ask God to help you love His people the way He does.
For whoever is leading: this is a recommitment, not a performance. Let people say as much or as little as they want. If someone is still in a hard place, that is a real result too; stay with them.
Jesus first. Then His people, the way He loves them.
What you write stays in this browser. Nothing is sent to anyone.
Check in
Last time you wrote that you would:
This is where you will look back at yesterday. For today, just notice how you are coming into this.
An honest prayer
Pray this as it is, or in your own words.
Jesus, You are first. Not my church, not my comfort, not my disappointment. I will take up my cross today and follow You. Keep me close, and use me.
Read
Luke 9:23-27 (OTB)
23Then He said to them all, “If anyone wishes to follow Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” 24“For whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever gives up his life for My sake will find it.” 25“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit their very self?” 26“Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of them when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” 27“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not experience death before they see the kingdom of God.”
Read it once, then read it again, slowly. You will notice different things the second time.
Retell it
Three questions
What does this say about God?
What does this say about people?
If this is true, what would I do today?
Today, I will
One line
Your 40 days
Here is everything you wrote on your "I will" and one-line journal, day by day.
Nothing is saved in this browser yet. If you kept your journal somewhere else, this is a good moment to read it back.
Where to from here?
Keep going with someone
If these forty days have stirred something and you want to talk it through, or you would like help finding or starting a Discovery Bible Study with the people God has put in front of you, we would be glad to connect you with someone who will listen.
If you stepped away from church, consider going back: not to be fixed by it, but as someone who puts Jesus first and wants to help others draw closer to Him.
If forty days have not lifted the disappointment, that is an honest result, and it does not mean you failed. Faith comes by hearing, and it often grows slowly. Keep reading.