All through His life He had been "in all points tempted like as we are".... In this last hour of the powers of darkness they make one great assault on the very citadel of His being, and seek to tempt Him with the sorest of all temptations... the assertion of our self-will.

God values your soul so highly that He gave His own Son to bear your sin and its penalty: to be reviled, defamed, cursed, put to shame and contempt, and slaughtered in crucifixion. What an immense price for your soul!

There are many manifestations of the self life which are not clearly sinful, but neither are they truly Christlike. ...this middle zone of self activity... must be... crucified in order to reach deep abiding union with God, where there is none of self and all of Christ Jesus.

Once one has consented to this life of the entire denial of self, the cross will be welcomed and loved as the appointed power of God for freeing us of the evil power that is the only hindrance in our way of being fully conformed to the image of God's Son.

What is our daily cross? It is those things in our lives that produce suffering of body, mind, or heart. It is those things which in our poor judgment seem to hinder the easy flow of our religious life.... Were there no suffering at all, then there would be no cross at all.