In the following 4 minute video by Dr. Jeff Mayfield, he explains the concepts in book 3, chapter 8 of Calvin’s Institutes, regarding bearing one’s cross.
To the modern Christian, these thoughts will likely be foreign; yet they are biblical.
More than that, if you are truly born again, then Calvin’s words will give you insight into what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life to sanctify you.
We must learn to quit relying on self, and see ourselves as bankrupt, as is declared by Jesus in Matthew 5:3. But discovering our helplessness and insufficiency to walk this earthly pilgrimage in our own strength, is a difficult and painful thing.
Our struggle, and many reversals, cause negative feelings, such as powerlessness, frustration, helplessness, inadequacy, anger; a deep sense of wretchedness…but these are necessary experiences (see Ezekiel 36 for one example of the Lord telling Israel that very thing).
Dr. Mayfield encourages Christians to quit bucking and resisting God, like an unbroken horse, and learn to submit to His Spirit (Psalm 32 uses that imagery).
Once we see our own powerlessness to walk the Christian life without dependence upon the Lord (our many failings reveal this, if we are getting the correct message from them) then learning to trust in and depend upon Him become a real possibility.
In my own walk, I am struggling with this presently; and have been for some time; it seems to me that this process could also be called, learning self-denial, and learning to understand my own wretchedness; that is, learning to concur with God’s description of me in His word.
To use Jesus’ words to describe the aforementioned: learning poverty of spirit; to mourn my sin; meekness; hungering and thirsting for His righteousness….
I have been shown many ways in which I have trusted in myself, and have consequently experienced many, many failures — God will not permit us to succeed in our own strength.
I am becoming more desperate about learning to submit wholly to Christ for deliverance from my walking in my own strength; I am also growing in my understanding that this is the only way to be saved — as Christ said in John 14:6: that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life; and that no one can come to the Father except through Him. (I have intellectually believed that for a long time, but did not experientially understand what those words meant in reality, on the level of real world experience.)
This struggle also seems to be what is cataloged by the apostle Paul in Romans 7 and 8; which a friend and I are, providentially, studying at this time.
If you are at a place in your own walk wherein the above words had some meaning to you, then you may find Dr. Mayfield’s video helpful.
Calvin’s Institutes for the Christian Religion is book about living the Christian life. Knowing the contents of that book is a great aid in walking the Christian life.
There are many posts by Dr. Mayfield and audio books on Calvin’s Institutes in this blog, see, Categories, Calvin’s Institutes; additionally, there are other very helpful videos by Dr. Mayfield in the following categories: John Owen; Jonathan Edwards; and Thomas Brooks.
Dr. Mayfield’s YouTube site is Knowing to Love (use his name also, when searching for his site).