“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  Matthew 7:13-14

When you think about what it means to live a Christian life, does it seem easy or hard to you?  We see people in church, and in small group settings, where what we see is often only a small glimmer of what is truly going on in those people’s life.  If we compared ourselves to what we see it may be discouraging.  It’s kind of like Facebook, where if you judged people’s lives by what you saw there, you would assume that everyone else were the happiest people, leading the most exciting lives.  It is a lie.  So is the idea that leading a Christian life is easy, or that people “have it together” more than anyone else.

My hope is that each of you belongs to a church and a small group of believers where the facade of perfection is removed.  Living as a Christian day to day is not easy.  If your life is easy, that’s usually a warning sign that you may have drifted from God.  We all struggle, we all have periods of doubts, and we all have brokenness in our lives.  The danger for us as Christians is to relax, and presume upon past belief in Jesus to sustain us.

Living life as a Christian we have one way to enter into God’s Kingdom – Jesus.  He is the narrow gate. Jesus says that He is the “Way”, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.  (John 4:16).  So Jesus is how we enter into God’s Kingdom, and He is the way we are to walk until God calls us home.  What is the other option?  What is the wide gate and “easy” way?  Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

The reason living a Christian life is hard is because we are called to constantly put to death the sin that is in us.  Our self-will apart from God is the root of sin – pride.  God is calling us to a new way, a new path – He sees our future, He knows what is is good for us, He has demonstrated His love for us by dying for us, and He is simply saying “Trust me”.  We do this by forsaking what seems right to us, and instead we look to Jesus, we go to God in His Word and we submit ourselves to His will, entrusting ourselves to the love of God.  We get knocked around by life, we fall back, but we move forward in the power of God working in us.

My exhortation today is to consider what areas of your life you are not submitting to God.  What desires do you have that you are unwilling to let go of and entrust to God? What fears are keeping you from wanting to trust God there fully?   What has God shown you that would answer those fears, and allow you to trust Him more?  Take all of that to God in prayer, and know that you’re praying to a God to loves you deeply, and takes joy in you coming to Him as much as you want – all the time.  If you have entered by the narrow gate of Jesus into the Kingdom of God, continue following after Him, knowing that He will keep your foot from slipping from the way, even when it is hard.  Our promise is not that life will be easy, much the opposite – we are told it will be difficult.  Our comfort is that we are following a God who is sovereign, knows the beginning from the end, who loves us beyond understanding, and will walk with us, every step of the way.

Grace and Peace,

Adam