Matthew 7:13-14
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
We have two paths in life we can take...The paths each have a gate...One gate is narrow and the other gate is wide...The paths are the same size as the gates...One path is broad, wide and is an easy path to follow...The other path is a narrow path and hard to stay on, and especially hard to keep on...The narrow path take an extra effort...The wide path allows us to do as we please...The paths are very close to each other...The wide path seems to be right beside the narrow path...All it takes, it seems, is one step to get to either gate and on a new path...But we have a choice...And we make that choice...Sometimes we do not even know that we have made the choice...That one step (to the wide path) can be a temptation, a coveting, a desire, a lust, a drink, a drug, wanting to do our will, or an evil wickedness that moves us from the narrow path to the wide gate and on the broad, destruction path...
From the earliest of times, we learn how we have a choice...In Genesis 4:7 God tells Cain, that if he does what is right, he will be accepted... But if he does what is wrong, sin is crouching at his very door; it (sin) desires to have you...Sin is the wide gate, it desires us...Sin is right outside our door...Temptation is there everyday, waiting at at our door...It has been there since the earliest of times...
Jesus tells us it is easy to follow the path of temptation, desire, lust, covetous, or wickedness to destruction...But it is hard to be obedient and disciplined and follow the word of the Father and Son, which is the small gate and narrow road...But we do have this choice... For some, if not many, or maybe for all, it is a choice they/we must make each and everyday...
I do not know why God made the paths so differently...One so wide and easy, the other so narrow and hard...Or did He make the sizes???... Or did we???...Is this just they way they look to us???...We sometimes may want the easy way or easy way out, or the easiest path...Sometimes the grass looks a little greener on the wide path...Sometimes the fruit on those trees, somehow just looks sweeter...And when life gets hard, it is just easier to take the wider path...One even might say to themselves, after being on the wide path, that soon, but surely later, I will get back on the right, narrow path...For the short term, the wide path might even make you happier...It might even answer a short term desire...But that lasts only for a little while...And I know later, I will come to my senses later and do better...
The road and path to heaven is this narrow one...To reach our desired kingdom, we must go through the narrow gate...For many of us we do want to enter the kingdom of heaven, but we would rather go through the wide gate...That is not the gate to heaven...It does not work that way...That is the wrong way, you know where that gate leads...Jesus tells us, that gate leads to destruction...
Man loves to be in control...The wide path offers this...It allows man his freedom to do his will, and be in control...Through the narrow gate, is God's will...I can see why many choose the wide gate and path, and so few choose the narrow way...We need to pray, and need prayer often to keep on the narrow path...We are only a sin away from the wide gate...God wants us on the narrow path...He rejoices when we are on it, and stay on it...
Like the Prodigal Son, we can choose the wrong path, and the wrong gate and then repent and come to our senses and our Father will forgive us...