Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me - Part I

Having finished reading through the Psalms, I'm heading back to John Calvin for some daily insights. Calvin wrote extensively on suffering and why it is such an integral part of human existence. Over the next few posts, I want to explore this notion of suffering through his writings in the Institutes of the Christian Religion. The focus of the posts will be Jesus' words in Matthew 16:24:

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

What does this mean to us as believers? More to reflect on in the next post.