WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT WE MUST BEAR OUR OWN CROSS?

To bear your own cross [stake] is to realize that when you were baptized you walked into the water and were covered completely; that was symbolic of your dying to self, and when you rose up out of the water, you rose up to newness of life as a new creation in the Lord Jesus, God's anointed one. Now that you are a new creation having God's Spirit in you, you are now a temple of Yehovah individually and collectively also form a temple of Yehovah! You are also grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel as a member of the true Israel of God - Yehovah, and as such, a member of the household of Yehovah, a member of the congregation of Yehovah - the called-out Assembly of God.

As a son or daughter of the only true God Yehovah, we have been saved by His amazing grace and mercy. After having received His uniquely begotten son as our personal Lord and Savior we will walk on the narrow difficult difficult path and "suffer many trials and tests" for his name's sake. In him, we need to stand firm on the solid rock of his righteousness! This is how we individually "bear our own cross" in that we "suffer for his namesake in living the life of a saint, a child of God". The scriptures tell us "that we will endure many trials and tests" because "the devil roams about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour". To endure the many tests and trials along the way in our weakness we must rely on the enabling power of God's indwelling Spirit to guide, guard, and direct our paths realizing that we are now in the world, but not of the world as new creations in the Messiah Jesus.

Note: These major points of critical emphasis are given in many scriptures; but a few are these:

1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions - is not from the Father but is from the world.

John 15:19: If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 18:36: Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world."

2 Timothy 3:12: ...all that would live godly in the Messiah Jesus will suffer persecution.

1 Peter 5:10: But after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who calls you to share His eternal glory in union with the Messiah, will Himself perfect you and give you firmness, strength, and a sure foundation.
All of these point to the reason why we ought to bear our cross daily - which means making sure that the old self doesn't resurrect itself, because we are continually striving for perfection as defined in the scriptures as becoming more like God's anointed one, Jesus - Yehoshua!
To bear our own cross [stake] means we continually, by the enabling power of God's Spirit and the Spirit of the Lord Jesus in us, overcome the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of possessions, the attraction of this sin-sick world; and we resist the allurements of wicked spirit beings who would love to have us fail!
It is a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute endeavor! It is those who persevere in doing so until the end that will be saved and become co-inheritors and co-rulers in the coming age with Jesus, the one whom God has made Lord and Messiah!
To believe that Jesus is Lord is to believe and obey all that he has instructed us to do, all he commands us to do, which is to abide by the will of his God and our God, his Father and our Father Yehovah continually, even as he did and does!
So we see that baptism is where regeneration takes place, which is only the beginning, then renewal as a new creation, and finally perfection when we are resurrected to ever be with the lord Jesus when he returns! So we are saved, being saved and finally, our salvation will be complete at our resurrection at the end of this age when our God and Father Yehovah sends His son Jesus His anointed one down to take his place on the throne of David at Zion. May that day soon come!