My cross is also the specific circumstances and situations

To carry our cross means first to identify what this cross is concretely. My cross, with regard to my character and my nature, is one thing and my brother’s cross is another thing. However, our cross is not just our character but also the specific circumstances and situations in which we are powerless. Whatever we do, nothing works. One can say: we just sink deeper and deeper. Then we must either suffer a blow through our own fault, or we need someone else to give us a blow so that we can finally be pulled out of the swamp. Therefore it is necessary that spiritual shepherds should have personal experience of spiritual battle so that they are able to give wise advice or to teach people sound principles and also to encourage them. The power of encouragement lies in the fact that they themselves went through the experience. If one just speaks about experience described in a book, of course it is precious too, but it is completely different when one uses an example and has personal experience of the root of the problem. In other words, using a particular example we de facto speak about our experience, and just to better illustrate our own experience we also use the experience of other people, e.g. saints.

The power of God is manifested through these principles of Jesus: self-denial, carrying our cross and the following of Christ.

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