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  BEARING CROSSES MADE BY OURSELVES
  by Mary Wilder Tileston
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Summary: We make our own crosses when our wills lead us in a different
direction than God's will, but we can avoid them by straightening our
wills to God's will and following His path.

Topics: "Gods Will", "Surrender"
Scripture References: Isaiah 30:21, Hosea 14:9

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DESCRIPTION
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Mary Wilder Tileston preaches about aligning our will with God's will to
avoid unnecessary crosses in our lives. She emphasizes that God's ways
are just and right, guiding us in the correct path. Tileston highlights
the importance of surrendering our stubborn wills to God's upright will,
which cuts through pride, dreams, and distractions. She reminds us that
when we deviate from God's path, we create our own crosses, not the ones
meant for us to bear in following Jesus.

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CONTENT
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And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way,
walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the
left.

ISAIAH 30:21

The ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them.

HOSEA 14:9

YET more and more this truth doth shine

From failure and from loss,

The will that runs transverse to Thine

Doth thereby make its cross:

Thine upright will

Cuts straight and still

Through pride and dream and dross.

W. M. L. JAY

LET us remember that it is not God who makes many of the crosses that we
find in our way, such as we commonly call "crosses." Our Heavenly Father
makes "straight paths for our feet," and, if we would go in His way, if
we would straighten our wills to His will, and lay them side by side,
there would be no crosses. But when the path that God points out goes
north and south, and our stubborn wills lead us east and west, the
consequence is "a cross"--a cross of our own making, not that which our
Master bids us "take up and carry after Him," and of which it has been
well said, "He always carries the heaviest end Himself."

ANNIE WEBB-PEPLOE

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/mary-wilder-tileston/bearing-crosses-made-by-ourselves/
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