SCRIPTURE: Matthew 7
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
(Read my reflection from 2008)
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. [Matthew 7:13-14]
If Jesus were a salesman, His ‘product’ would be a hard sell.
His teaching cuts to the heart, focusing on our own issues.
The narrow gate is the hard gate, the one we can barely squeeze through.
We have to drop our baggage to get through it – judgmental and critical spirits.
Words are not enough, we need to pursue and practice Jesus’ way.
It is not those who claim to know Jesus by their words, but those who demonstrate their relationship to Jesus by doing what He says.

Jesus is not a salesman, He is not embellishing His product to make people want it.
His teaching does not have popular appeal, but it does have authority.
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. [Matthew 7:28-29]
It hits people deep, it strikes them as real and authentic, they don’t like what He says but they sense deep down that what He says is true.

I believe this is still true today – Jesus message is hard, yet it rings true.
This is one of the reasons why I believe in Jesus, His message makes sense, it speaks to the condition of my heart and of the world.
People may prefer to hear about short cuts, ‘easy street’, but this is not what we need.
Whether we admit it, like it or not, our condition is desperate, we need help.
There is no amount of self-help that will enable us to fix the world, or our lives.
We need to be honest, self-aware, and we need to stop criticizing others.
We need to genuinely seek God’s help, and strive to live according to His will.
But who wants to take this path?
Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

As I reflect on Jesus’ teaching, I have no doubt that what He says is real and true.
But this is not enough, I need to act on this, I need to do something with it.
This is the ‘good fruit’ that He is seeking, the way to build our lives on solid rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. [Matthew 7:26]

PRAYER:
Lord, what You say is hard, but it also rings true. The challenge for me to is do something with it. Show me the plank in my eye that I need to work on, and help me to do something about it!