In this day and age, we are presented with various options of how we should morally live our lives. Some people say a particular path is the best one, while others point to a different path they claim is best, and it can be quite confusing to discern which is truly the correct road. Yet, Jesus is very clear that there is only one way that leads to life—His way. John 14:6 that reminds us that aside from being the truth and the life, Jesus is the way. We can connect this with Matthew 7:14 (NIV) which says, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life…”
As you might be thinking, God’s way looks like it’s going to be full of rules and laws. However, Psalm 16:6 (NIV) reminds us “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places…” This reassures us that the boundaries God has put in place are for our own benefit. When He formed His narrow road for us, He knew that if we walk on it, we will be exponentially better off than if we choose any other path. Even if His path has its share of challenges, the benefits outweigh the struggles (Romans 8:18). The Bible is very clear that God’s path is the only one that ends in life—true life, abundant life, satisfying life.
On the other hand, the wide road looks like it’s going to be full of benefits, and for a while, it might be all fun and games, but eventually the horrible consequences will outweigh the fun, and it’s all downhill from there. The happiness will last for a moment, then leave you worse off than when you first started because the wide road is a deception from the enemy. Proverbs 14:12 (NASB) warns us “There is a way which seems right to a person, But its end is the way of death.” Whether having to follow man-made rules or having the ability to do whatever you want, this verse illustrates that all paths outside of God’s are disastrous. To our flesh, freedom to do whatever we please seems like a good option. But is that really freedom? Galatians 5:13 (AMP) tells us “For you, my brothers [and sisters], were called to freedom; only do not let your freedom become an opportunity for the sinful nature (worldliness, selfishness).” Through the blood of Jesus, we have been set free from all that the enemy uses to enslave people. If God encouraged us to use our freedom to do whatever we want, we would be led into self-destruction, but God is a better Father than that. Just like a good earthly father loves to instruct his children for their own good, God, being our perfect Heavenly Father, desires us to live a certain way—His narrow path, as outlined in His Word—because He deeply wants to see us thrive. When we live in alignment with how He desires us to live, we walk by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16), and “…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17; NIV). This freedom is actually more about living according to the narrow road—His perfect way, His perfect design, and His perfect intent—, rather than doing whatever we want, since that would only lead us to “be entangled again with a yoke of bondage,” the exact situation Christ doesn’t want us in (Galatians 5:1; NKJV).
His narrow way requires us to live differently than the majority of the people we see in the world. Yet as believers, we’ve got to be okay with standing out because we are citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3:20), not citizens of this world. If you think about Jesus, He was born into the world and walked in it, but He was not a child of it; therefore He didn’t live and act like the world. We are the same in this sense because when we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we were born into the light as children of God (Ephesians 5:1 and 1 Thessalonians 5:5), and are now no longer children of the world (John 17:14-16), so, like Jesus, we must live and act according to our new identity. Once again the benefits outweigh the challenges. Psalm 37:5-6 (NIV) also says “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” Likewise, John 14:21 (NIV; emphasis added) says “‘Whoever has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves me…I too will love them and show Myself to them.’” When we choose to live the way God desires us to live, the blessings will be overflowing in our lives, and best of all, He will manifest and reveal Himself to us in palpable ways. As wonderful as all the blessings are, truly nothing is more rewarding than when we experience Him tangibly. It’s what was always meant for us, and what’s awaiting for us in eternity; yet He lovingly gives us tastes of that right here in the “in-between,” so to speak.
Let us spend some time sitting with God, praying, and asking Him to reveal areas in our life of compromise, places we have started to act like the world. There’s no condemnation for us who are in Christ (Romans 8:1), but at the same time, if we become aware of areas that need to be changed, we must take the steps to do so. This is a process where we must hold all aspects of our lives up to His Word, and evaluate and constantly reevaluate to make sure they align as closely as possible to His way. Yes, we will mess up because we are still on this earth in our fleshly bodies, and His grace is there to catch us, but we cannot let our mistakes become a pattern because then sin will be our lifestyle and we will end up on the wide road instead of the narrow one.
If we continually check in with Him and ask Him to refine us to be more like Him, He will help us. It starts with knowing that God is a God we can fully trust, and when we come to Him, He is a safe place—the safest place—for us to sit and examine the intentions, motives, and statuses of our hearts. And if we find that we have walked astray (even in the slightest way), He is faithful to forgive us and help us. In His deep, deep love for us, His desire for us is to not just be on His way, but “keep His way” all the days of our lives (Psalm 37:34, NKJV; emphasis added). We cannot do this on our own strength, but by His strength—by taking His hand and walking with Him down the path He created for us: His narrow way, the best way there is.
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This is so moving!