cloudsoverroadMatthew 7:13-14
Enter through the narrow gate.   For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

I wonder why so few find the narrow road that leads to life?  I am sitting here pondering that scripture and thinking to myself, “But  here in this country it is SO EASY for people to hear about Jesus.”  Yet at the same time I can think of several people in my circle of life who were raised hearing the Truth yet have been confused and blinded by the enemy.

Our own choices in life can be used against us.   Choices to hold onto to unforgiveness can serve as open doors to the devil.   The fact is: Sin can blind us.  If we walk around with hatred in our hearts we basically allow blinders to fall over our eyes.

1 John 2:11
But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Satan blinds the eyes of the unbelievers too.  He doesn’t want people to accept the gift of salvation.  It is so easy to just believe and call on the Name of Jesus.

2 Corinthians 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

You have read that I wouldn’t want to start over on this journey that I have had with my parents and their decline, well the same goes for this journey through life.  Yes, we all say how great it would be to re-live our youth, but oh the lessons I have learned along the way …  Most of them the hard way too!  I do NOT want to go through those trials again.

It was during times of greatest pressure that I jumped to the next stepping stone.   Ugh … Stones of rejection.  Stones of fear.  Stones of pride.  Stones of unforgiveness.  Stones of regret.   Stones of sadness and loss …  My personal list could go on and on.   Even in this season with my parents I have seen my own selfishness yet I realize God in His great mercy has worked in my inmost being.

In the Amplified Version, Matthew 7::14 states that the “gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads” to life.   That makes sense to me because it has taken a lot of pressure over the years to shave off many of my rough edges and to soften those brick walls that satan had so cleverly built around my heart.

We do play a part in walking down that road.  Not that we can ever earn it, but we have to make the choice to trust God.   We choose to trust Him with our fears, insecurities, hearts, and lives.

So, what road are you on today?

John 3:16-18
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in Him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust Him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.  (Message Version)

(photo taken by me)