Narrow Way

“Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it.
But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it” Matthew 7:13-14 (Amplified)

Our pastor recently agreed that God is narrow minded. He has one way, it’s narrow and straight and He doesn’t shy away from that or dress it up to make it look more inviting. Few find it. That’s what the Bible says. In fact, in the Amplified Bible it says that the way is not only narrow, but that the gate is “contracted by pressure” in Matthew 7:14. In Luke 13:24 it says that we should “Strive to enter by the narrow door [force yourselves through it], for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.”

I knew the gate was narrow. I’ve heard that verse quoted since early childhood. I didn’t know there was so much effort required. I never thought about it being hard to find. I certainly never considered that it would be difficult to get through once it was found.

Many years ago I was trying to make a decision about something. I wrote a lot during that time, usually in song form, to express my thoughts and sort through the conflicting information. I realized that there were many good answers to my question but I had come to a point in my walk with the Lord that led me to believe there was a BEST answer. Not just what was logically best, but spiritually best. The answer that God was at the end of. I wrote:

Every answer’s right
and all but one is wrong
How can this confusion last so long?
There are a million voices
runnin’ through my mind
Which one is tellin’ me right?

It’s a bit cliche’ but it has come to mind again and again in realizing that God’s best is fought against on all sides. So many well meaning counselors and advisers tout the mathematics of logic, the addition of pros and cons establishing what is right. But God’s ways are not man’s ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts and the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.

This past weekend our family drove to Florida for a Kelso family reunion. My father-in-law led the devotion for Saturday evening and shared a very encouraging word on grace. It has an ever broadening definition for each saint who is in need of it. There is a grace for every trial, manifold, various and diverse, grace covers the spectrum and meets our repentance, our trials and our quandaries with victory. He talked about the fact that no matter how riddled with obstacles our path seems to be, grace offers us a way.

I thought for a moment about that concept. It struck me that there is always only one way. There is always a best way, a perfect, righteous, holy and God glorifying way. Those other paths are sometimes before us as options to confuse what is right and other times they are doors we see being slammed shut to discourage us into believing there is no way at all. No matter how the enemy tries to keep us from taking that road, it is always the same. The unchanging God has one way, one narrow, contracted way. Those who find it, those who press into it, who force themselves through, find life along that way.

I remember a moment of sheer hopelessness in my life, when I traveled with a ministry team in my early 20’s. I was in a situation that I could see no clear way of escape from. I prayed for deliverance and pleaded with God for an answer I could see. I remember specifically saying to Him, “God, this is overwhelming and I don’t see a way out, it’s as if your solution is a secret I have no way of getting to.” Within hours of that prayer I was walking into the church we were to minister in that night and passed the church’s choir room where they were rehearsing. I stopped short as I heard them singing these words: “It is No Secret, What God Can Do.”

God didn’t show me in that moment what He would do, but He was assuring me that there is most definitely a way that will lead to life. It isn’t a secret and it isn’t impossible, but it can be difficult to find and even when it’s found the pressure from the outside will try to convince us that it can’t be right. We don’t fit, surely if it were right we wouldn’t have to force ourselves through.

It is a common theme of grace, to be pressed through to what is right: “We are hedged in (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but not driven to despair;
We are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted [to stand alone]; we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed;” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (Amplified)

Perseverance then, must be our hope: “But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.” James 1:4

And the exercise of pressing in, onward and upward, forcing ourselves through: “Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.
I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.” Philippians 3:12-14 (Amplified)

I did find a way through hopelessness into joy. I struggled, I was truly beat down at times, but the path was waiting for me. There was a way, and it did bring life and not destruction. It was worth the effort to press through that gate, the straightened and compressed road I found has given me stability and balance that only God can give. When I think back on those years of being hedged in, I realize what a miracle God was performing all the time. Preparing me for what was to come, exposing me as one of the “[frail, human] vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from ourselves” 2 Corinthians 4:7