Tag Archives: straight and narrow

November 28, 2023 · 5:46 AM

The Good Trail

Over the weekend we found some old home videos and started watching them. In one of them we filmed in the woods near the house where I grew up. Suddenly I could see the trail we made through them. I remembered clearly how that trail was. About a quarter mile back it split into two directions. To the left, it went back about another half mile and dead ended into a barbed wire fence with a no trespassing sign. To the right, we could go almost a mile back around the neighborhood. If you followed it far enough, there was a creek that led to an old fishing hole my buddy and I loved to go to. Whoever we veered off the trail, it was easy to get lost, but all we had to do was find the trail and we could get back home.

Proverbs 2 talks about two trails we come across in life. One path, which is a way taken so much it becomes a rut like a trail, leads to life and away from the path that leads to evil. Verses 12 – 19 describe the path God is trying to keep us from going down. It describes it as dark, evil and crooked. It is lined with temptation to lead you to death. Verse 20 says, “So you will walk in the way of good men [that is, those of personal integrity, moral courage and honorable character], And keep to the paths of the righteous” (AMP). It’s great advice for all of us to stay on the trail that is full of integrity, courage and honorable character because the other trail is always beckoning us to go down it.

Jeremiah 6:16 says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand by the roads and look; ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is; then walk in it, And you will find rest for your souls.’” We’re all constantly faced with this choice. Should we go down a trail that leads to a dead end or down one that leads to life? God has always given us the choice, but He also tells us to choose life and to take the trail that is good. If you’ve wandered off the trail or have meandered down the wrong one, God’s offer still stands. It’s a matter of repentance, turning around, to get back on the trail that leads to His blessings. Use His Word as a lamp for your feet and a light to your trail and take it one step at a time.

Photo by Johannes Andersson on Unsplash

Peer Pressure

We’ve been talking to our Sunday School class about peer pressure. They’re a bunch of middle school kids, but I told them that peer pressure never goes away. Even as adults were constantly pulled to worry about what others think and to do things that please the crowd. We also discussed how the longer it takes you to do something that God asks you to, the harder it is to overcome peer pressure that wants you to do something else. I don’t know why there’s this thing in us that wants to go along with the crowd, but it’s in there for most people. There’s a fear that people will make fun of us or reject us if we don’t go along. However, the road to Heaven is straight and narrow with only a few who are willing to not go with the crowd down the broad and wide path to destruction. We must learn to obey God no matter what the crowd thinks.

In Mark 14, Jesus was about two days away from being crucified. He was having dinner at someone’s house when a woman came into the room. She had an alabaster jar full of expensive perfume with her. Quickly she broke open the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head. The disciples and those at the table began to pressure her and scold her saying she just wasted that bottle. They told her she should have sold it and helped the poor. She didn’t try to defend herself as the crowd attacked her for her act of obedience. That’s when Jesus stepped in and spoke up. He rebuked them for shaming her and said that she had done what she could and had pre-anointed Him for burial. Then He said that wherever the Gospel would be preached throughout the world, her act of obedience would be remembered and discussed.

In Acts 5:29 Peter told the leaders, “We must obey God rather than men” (ESV). They were trying to pressure him to quit preaching in Jesus name. You may not be brought before a court like Peter, but you will be asked to obey God in front of other people. They may try to convince you that what you’re doing is a waste or try to shame you, but we must remember that it’s more important to do what God asks. At the end of your life, you will stand before God and give account. I think of that when I’m struggling between obeying and worrying about what others think. It’s more important to please God instead of others. I don’t know what God is asking you to do. I don’t know what forms fear and rejection will take to try to stop you. However, we must push past that fear and act quickly like the woman with the perfume. When we do, it will release a beautiful smell to Heaven that God will breathe in and He will defend us from the peer pressure.

Photo by Luke Porter on Unsplash

The Shortcut To God

If you haven’t noticed, there are tons of self help books out there. They offer a few steps to make your life better. They promise if you’ll do these three things, your life will improve. Just like there’s no get rich quick formula, there’s no be a better you today formula. Both require hard work, dedication, and discipline. All the steps in the world won’t help you achieve what you want without those three things. You have to be willing and able to sacrifice the things you want now for a later payoff.

Living a Christian life is no different. There’s no three step program to being a better Christian. There’s no new formula that makes living like Jesus easier. People are looking for that, so publishers fill the void with those type of books. The steps seem so easy to follow until you try them out. When you fail, you wonder why you can’t be successful at living this life when you’ve read “Christianity for Dummies” over and over.

There’s no easy formula for living like Jesus taught us. There’s not an easy path to follow. If it were easy, the road wouldn’t be narrow with few who find it. Jesus warned us about these easy, self help Christianity books in Matthew 7:13-14. He said, “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention” (MSG).

There are no shortcuts to God or to living a godly life. You can’t do it while focusing on other things. You’re going to have to give it your full attention. You’re going to have to put in effort, dedication, and discipline. Those things aren’t what saves you. They’re what helps you live the life lined out for us to live. There’s no easy way to do. You’re going to have to want it more than the temporary pleasures of this life. When you live like that, you’ll find you’re walking on an uncrowned road that is straight and narrow.

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Tagged as Christianity, Devotion, discipline, easy christian life, faith, get mature quick, hard work, part time christian, prayer formula, self help, steps to a godly life, straight and narrow