I spent some time praying this passage to God by putting it into my own words and praying those words to him.
I have been crucified with Christ. My old self is dead. It no longer has power. It's on the cross. My sins are on Jesus there on the cross. The old me is dead. But I have been resurrected by Christ. His life has come into me and resurrected me. Christ live in me. And I live now by faith. I trust Christ. And I can trust him. He is trustworthy. He alone is trustworthy. He loves me purely and perfectly. He loves me so much that he gave himself for me. He left heaven for earth for me. He suffered and died for me. He loves me. And I love him. I love you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I love you.
My thoughts also went to the famous quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was a German Christian leader and theologian who resisted Hitler and was hanged before the end of the war.
As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in
union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins;
the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy
life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death
like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to
follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the
monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every
time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.
