We can all become the best Christ-follower we can be despite all of our failures and apparent weaknesses. Christ has called us to follow Him, not surpass Him. When we come to realise that His yoke is really easy and that His burden is genuinely light, following Him won't be such a very uncomfortable thing to do at all.

Taking His Word to our heart

If we want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to take to heart what He said about it. He said in Matthew 16:24, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." We need to understand this and take it seriously.

Here are some things that we will need to do to be the best Christ-follower that we can be, according to what Jesus said.

1. Desire to follow Christ

You'll never be a good follower, let alone a Christ-follower, unless you desire it in your heart to pursue the Lord. Ask yourself, have you really desired to follow Christ and wanted to be like Him, or do you just want to go to church because of the comforts that the community of godly men and women bring?

Think about it. You'll never be willing to do what Christ wants you to do unless you desire to follow Him and obey Him. Pray to God that your desire to follow Christ would grow to be a consuming fire in you.

2. Deny yourself

We'll never have more of Christ in us if we are full of ourselves. Think about it: How do you fill a jar that's already filled to the brim?

We all have to learn to deny ourselves. This doesn't mean being a sadist and denying yourself of that delicious plate of pasta and huge slice of pizza. Rather, it means denying our sinful and fleshly desires that war against the Spirit of God living in us and sanctifying us. See what fleshly things you have left, and learn to deny them, then choose to pursue Christ and His holiness.

3. Take up your cross

This one may mean a lot of things, but let's simplify it into two. First, you need to focus on and work towards the purpose of God for your life. You were made by God and saved by Him (that's a double-whammy) just so that you would live for His pleasure. Think about it. Christ came to earth to do God's will, and so should you.

Second, you should learn to crucify the flesh with all its passions and desires. (see Galatians 5:24) Christ nailed all of our sin and the record of charges against us on that cross. In that very cross He freed us from that which we could free ourselves from. When we carry our cross, we should also put to death the deeds of the flesh and live according to the works of the Spirit.

After these

After these things we can be able to follow Christ with all our being. In fact, in following Him we need to keep doing all of these. Let's keep pursuing Him because He will never stop working in us to complete the work He has begun.