Title Narrow Road is not an option.
“Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many who enter by it are narrow and stray the way that leads to life, and few find it” (Matthew 7:13, 14).
Jesus told believers to enter through the narrow gate instead of the wide gate. So the believer keeps trying to find the narrow gate and enter it. For example, I think that we are living a proper life of faith only if we deliberately yield, sacrifice, and go in a direction that requires more strength. Of course, if you are a believer, of course, you must build others up and die yourself.
However, there is something else that the believer must make sure of in this matter. Most believers are mistaken as if they have chosen the narrow path or have to choose it. The first thing to know is that the believer did not come to believe in Jesus by mobilizing his own will after analyzing and judging. Although it is true that his designation was clearly mobilized at the moment of his final decision, it was entirely God's intervention and grace up to that moment. Even the mobilization of such a will is His grace and intervention.
In a parable, salvation is like receiving a gift from someone. A gift depends only on the heart and choice of the giver. Also, it is a true gift when the giver prepares everything in advance without the receiver knowing. All the people who give it a pretty ribbon and wrap it. Then, when the recipient is neither expected nor prepared at all, it is taken out unexpectedly. But the receiver must receive. However, at this time, just because you received the gift by mobilizing your own clothing, can you not say that you have chosen and chosen the gift of your own will, or that you got it?
In other religions, but in Christianity, the essence of salvation is to suddenly come out of the chapel one day and be surprised to find yourself praising the name of Jesus and praying in that name. I did not believe in Jesus because I was ideologically noble, morally good, and spiritually spiritual. It was only later that I found out that I had been saved only by the grace of God.
In other words, if you are born again and receive salvation through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, then you have already been built on the narrow road. His life and the direction of his life have already been completely oriented toward God. Isn't being saved and repenting of being a U-turn from sin to God? And the U-turn must have taken a different path, isn't it?
Therefore, the faith that the believer must hold by mobilizing the special will of his designation must be the first thing to never forget that he is already on a narrow path. And we have to make sure that there is absolutely no way and no intention of being moved from that narrow road back to the wide road. If so, then the path we will leave for the rest of our lives is of course a narrow path, and the only problem is our determination and devotion to walk that path with the Lord without regrets, regrets, disappointments or complaints. No, you really should be doing that.
Still, believers are mistaken as if they had chosen the narrow path. Furthermore, I think that sometimes you may find yourself forced to make such a choice again and again. So I think that I should or chose the narrow path instead of the wide path by overcoming such trials and temptations with my will because my heart is willing but my body does not listen.
Of course, such an interpretation is possible if we limit ourselves to one event, place, person, and time. However, just because a believer once indulged in Sunday worship and enjoyed the world's fun doesn't it mean that he suddenly becomes a non-believer? In other words, it is not going from a narrow road to a wide road. You're still on a narrow road, but you've just bumped into a boulder and fell. Or, for a moment, he turned his head to the back of the wide road.
Even Jesus said that the road that leads to destruction is wide and wide. Most people go that route. He also said that the narrow and strait road leads to life, the opposite of destruction. A believer is one who enters on the path that leads to life, and through that gate, an unbeliever is one who is on the path that leads to destruction. In a narrow sense, it means that a believer may make a wrong choice and lose vitality to his life for a while, but that is not destruction.
In short, true believers do not, and should not, be troubled by choosing between the two paths of life and destruction, since they are already on a narrow, strait and particularly lonely road. The direction is set and we are going forward, but we just need to kill the desire to take a break and look back. To do that, you must have no doubts because the path you are currently taking is the true path of life.
If you do not have the desire and devotion to believe in Jesus and follow Him for the rest of your life, no matter how hard you go to church and engage in religious activities, you are not a believer. The truth is, as you go along the wide road and keep looking back at the narrow road, you are mistaken as if you are on the path of life. Nor does such a person suddenly become a believer and gain life just by choosing the good and righteous path for a while. The reverse is also true. A person who enters the path of life does not suddenly become an unbeliever and fall into destruction just because he chooses an evil and sinful path for a while.
This means that when God looks at the believer, he does not look at how good he has done or whether his heart is good or not. If we look at the temporary actions, words and thoughts of a believer, if we look at the path God chooses each time in other words, there is no one among us who will not fall into destruction.
Instead, God puts his life at the center of the believer and sees where he or she is headed. In short, I see if you are convinced that you have already entered the narrow road, and although it is painful and difficult in the world, it is truly an exciting path with God's peace, comfort, joy, grace, and power.
The narrow path is not an option for believers. It is not, however, a mandatory requirement. It's just a reality that's already in progress. Furthermore, it is a future tense, or a future perfect tense with a definite destination. There are no shortcuts, detours, side roads, sideways, and no special return roads on that narrow road. It is only a single straight road.
A narrow road is just a narrow road, but it is not a complicated maze where you get confused about which path to choose and where you are going, so you go back and then come back. It is a straight road with a very clear end point. The road is still narrow and strait, but it is actually easy because the Lord walks with us until we reach the final destination. It is an easy path, in that there is no longer a need to make a special choice, and because the believer himself is happy and excited to go down that narrow path.
Again, in a limited sense, a believer can fall into sin and temptation by making the wrong choice. However, he did not change direction by choosing the path itself, he was still only briefly stumbled on the narrow path. This means that you can stand up on the spot at any time. It's not a return to the starting point or a far retreat. I just stopped there for a while on the way. All you have to do is freeze, look ahead and walk again. Wouldn't it be better, then, that the sooner the job is done, the better?
7/7/2006