All difficulties in Life are permitted by God to your benefit...

Jesus said that if we want to be his disciples, we must be born again, take up our Crosses, and follow him. but I don't believe that's what Jesus meant when he said to take up OUR literal Crosses, and follow him.  So, what did Jesus mean when he said we must take up our Crosses and follow him?  I believe Jesus' reference to the Cross had a much deeper meaning that some may not recognize.

I believe Jesus' reference to the Cross is a metaphor used by Jesus to illustrate our human trials and tribulations, to equate them with trials and tribulations that can sometimes seem to us to be as difficult as torture, ridicule, and humiliation upon the Cross, both emotionally and physically. 

These days, the literal Cross isn't generally something we would have to deal with, but there are some terrible trials in life that challenge our ability to endure them. Keep in mind that nothing happens to us unless it is authorized by God.  

Refer to Luke, Chapter 22, which says that Satan does not have the power or authority, without a specific blessing from God, to visit upon us our trails and tribulations, which I believe is meant to represent our brand of what Jesus referred to as our individual Crosses. In the book of Job, the bible specifically states that Satan directly reports to God, and can do nothing without God's blessing.  

If Satan already has us under his thumb, then we may go through life with little or no appeal from Satan to God that we be tested.  Why would Satan feel a need to test his disciples?  If we have rejected Jesus, we may live a wonderful earthly existence, with little or no major adversity, but it's a short lived lying paradise.  Eternity is forever...Trials and tribulations, and the opportunity to handle them according to Jesus commandments is a blessing, an opportunity, not the curse that most of mankind believes is taking place.  It is all in how we handle the adversities of life, whether we handle them according to Jesus' commandments, or we reject Jesus as he is attempting to warn us of the consequences of our rejection.

Therefore, did Jesus mean that we should take up our Crosses, which are our human trials and tribulations that are authorized to happen to us with God's blessing, but delivered by Satan, and to accept those trials and tribulations in support of God's plan?  

Isn't that the faith required of us if we are to anticipate everlasting life and the rewards in heaven upon our physical death?  How else would we be able to demonstrate to God the validity of our faith without enduring human trials and tribulations, authorized by God, delivered by Satan, and to handle them along the narrow path demonstrated by his Son, Jesus. These trials and tribulations are our individual Crosses, tailor made for us individually.  If we recognize them as such, half the battle is won, and we are half way there to defeating Satan, who is betting that we will fail these tests he hatefully bestows upon us.

I believe Jesus meant we are to accept our challenges, and to handle them with a full measure of faith in God, and in Jesus as the one and only savior, both individually, and of mankind in general.  It's my belief that when we accept our trials and tribulations, our brand of the Cross, and we strive to handle those challenges as Jesus would handle them, not how mankind in the flesh would handle them, that we are due a reward in God's kingdom, according to God's judgement of our eligibility for rewards in heaven when we physically die.  

We can blame God for our tribulations, we can become bitter, we can say our lot in life is the pits, we can distrust Jesus when the difficult challenges of life visit us.  Or, we can accept the trials as the will of God, as a literal blessing upon us.  We can have faith that God has our best interests at heart, that he loves us, that he is permitting these trials and tribulations as a means of opportunity to demonstrate our faith in God, and Jesus, to demonstrate our faith and belief in God and Jesus to others, and to grow our own faith and allegiance to God and Jesus.  

We are given free will to make the decision, but our decision has consequences according to God's law, and according to the teachings of Jesus. We can turn to God and Jesus when these challenges visit us, or we can reject the opportunity we are being given to accrue rewards in heaven based on our positive or negative acceptance of God's will, no matter how difficult the challenges may seem to be.  

Going to the Cross was very difficult for Jesus to the extent that knowing he was going to die by voluntarily going to the Cross caused him to literally sweat his own human blood, which was visible to the disciples as perspiration on his skin, just from knowing that he would die on the Cross in agony and humiliation.  But, he did it anyway, to fulfill God's plan for us, to save us from ourselves, because we are helpless otherwise.  He did it on the off-chance, proven throughout 4000+ years of biblical history, that only some of us would accept him as our individual savior, and the savior of mankind, sent by God to save those of us that accept him as such.  

Think of how many down through the ages rejected Jesus' sacrifice, and mock it to this day. Jesus went to the Cross, and knowing all of that, he went anyway, obeying God, fulfilling his duty to God's plan. For those of us that accept his sacrifice for what it truly was, a gift of God and Jesus, according to God's requirements that we confess our sins, and rely upon the sacrifice of Jesus, accepting Jesus as the Son of God sent to die in our place as a substitute for our sin so that we will inherit everlasting life upon physical death.

Everlasting life is a gift of God when we confess to God and Jesus that we are sinners, we ask for forgiveness, that we follow Jesus example as best as we can (following in Jesus' footsteps), that we also, and just as importantly, realize that we alone, without Jesus intervening on our behalf before God, can never justify our sins before a perfect God without faith in Jesus as the Son of God, sent by God to redeem us.  

It's an arrogant and deceptive position for human beings to take if we believe we can stand before a perfect God without the intervention of Jesus. This is a lie, perpetrated by the enemies of God upon individuals, lies by Satan to make us believe that we, as sinful human beings according to God's standards, would be able to proclaim our own brand of righteousness before the omnipotent creator of the universe, when throughout 4000+ years of history the prophets of God, and Jesus himself, told us otherwise in no uncertain terms.