Enter the Narrow Gate

In our day to day life, when we thought of narrow, we tend to attach a negative connotation to it. Even at the moment I was writing this, once I ponder upon the word, negative feeling slowly crept into my heart.

We usually see narrow passages, holes and bridges in obstacle courses. They were purposely put there to make our journey through the course difficult. At stores, when we buy bottles, we shun from narrow necked ones, we choose instead the wider necked bottles for more convenient use and cleaning as well. When we travel in the city or metropolis, we avoid bottle necked routes to avoid delay and of course waste of fuel once stuck in traffic jams.

Probably those negative experiences with the word narrow caused us to prefer the word wide in general. When we hear wide, we seem to feel ease and the roominess of the word.

That is why when we come across the passage – Enter through narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14) in the Bible, we can’t help but to feel quizzical. Not necessarily because we don’t want to obey God, but because we struggle with negative experience we grew to connect with the word.

In our relationship with the Lord, going through the narrow gate has an assurance of His promise. As the Bible says,” Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Prov 3:5) We can separate ourselves from how we imbibed the word narrow, and then yield to God the rest of our journey. Surrendering to Him any negativism that had rooted up in us will alleviate our inhibition then gradually pave the road towards complete get over of the word.

At first, Abraham felt the same queer as we do (with the word narrow), when was offered by God to become a father of great nation. (Genesis 17:17) But his impartial obedience made him able to enter the narrow gate, trusting God that he would be walked through as promised. Although he rationalized how it would be possible considering his age and that of Sarah’s  he took God for His word and relied consistently on the power of God to prosper Him, which was when he left his homeland and headed to a place God led him to. (Gen 12:1-8)

As he journeyed with God, Abraham did not fail to worship and honor Him. His humble obedience gave way to progressive intimacy with the LORD. Hence, right decisions preceded his choices and therefore his life. This attitude of Abraham, rendered to him favors from God and (Gen. 18:18) good reputation so much so that kings were afraid of him (Gen. 20: 1-18)

Abraham is just like any other person of our times, dealing also with mundane concerns of life. And so as obedience was merited to him, it could be possible also to us. It’s going to be a start of a life intimate with the Lord and not afraid, neither hesitant to enter the narrow gate, where we can be sanctified by the Lord and enjoy the fullness of His glory.

Reference : 

CCF Chronicle Weekly Bulletin

BibleGateway: Books of Genesis, Gospel Of Matthew, Proverbs

Big thanks to Ms. Charie Pelaez for the photo