"What is our daily cross? It is that one or more things which are unavoidable in our lives, and which produce suffering of body or mind or heart. It is that thing which in our poor judgment seems to hinder the easy flow of our religious life. Sometimes our cross may be composed of a combination of things, but as a general rule, it is some one instrument or cause of suffering to the soul... It is as impossible for the true saint not to have some cross as it is to walk in the sunshine without having shadow...
It is your daily cross that makes you weep more than any other thing; that sends you to frequent prayer; that leads you to ransack the promises; that makes you cry out, like Jesus, "Father, why is this?" that causes you to reach out to the everlasting arms which sustain you (Deu 33:27); that makes you sick of the world and selfishness; that gives you longings for heaven. Oh, precious old homely, daily cross, what deep and far- reaching effects thou hast wrought through all these prayer-paved years!
...If you want deep communion with Jesus Christ, getting rid of your cross is the very thing to defeat you...When our cross has driven us to center our lives on Christ, and we are kept aware of His presence and power, then the cross will have proved its own balsam. Every trial will be a victory in the walk of faith, and a testimony of the Gospel to all around us...
How long it takes to accept our daily trials as a gift direct from the hands of our Lord! His eyes are on us; He notices our inner feelings, thoughts, and choices, as to our cross. The spirit in which we bear our trials here will mark the grade of our standing in the world to come. It is by persevering prayer that we get on the sunny side of every sorrow, and on the triumphant side of every trial.
It is the sharp grain of sand cutting its way into the oyster that is enveloped with the life-juices of the creature and turned into a pearl; so our daily cross, cutting its way into our life's core by being folded round and round with many tears and loving prayers, becomes in our souls the very pearl of Christ-likeness, and more valuable than all our own chosen blessings. The Holy Ghost can reveal to us the very disposition in which Jesus bore His daily trials, and when we bear ours in the same spirit, then indeed do we have fellowship with Him...
It does not matter what the occasion of the suffering may be. It may come from our own sins, or poverty, or ill-health, or loss of friends, or separations, or terrible and protracted temptations or assaults of evil spirits, or the hatred of others, or great disappointment, or divine chastisements; it may come from many of these sources; but let it come from any cause in the universe, if we give it over entirely into the hands of God, and entrust ourselves to His will, with a perfect desire for Him to work His best will in us, He will make every pain, every groan, every tear, every particle of our suffering, work in us a death to sin and to selfishness, and to all things on earth which will be for our highest perfection and for His glory."