Frank Laubach once said this about his prayer life: “It is the hardest thing I do, but it makes everything else easier.”
Rufus Moseley was a contemporary of Laubach. One of his most memorable sayings was: “Some people are living in hell on the way to hell, but others are living in heaven on the way to heaven.”
These sayings by two of the most influential servants of the Lord in the last century have one thing in common: they echo Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount message.
“Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
The Narrow Gate and Narrow Road of Discipleship
Whether it was Peter and Andrew or the tax collector Matthew, these men and others left everything behind to follow Jesus. Luke 8:1-3 lists a group of women who also became disciples of Jesus, sacrificing their possessions to provide for His ministry.
These people walked through the narrow gate and continued on a narrow road of discipleship. Upon their initial meeting with Jesus, they willingly left family, work, friends, and homes. This was their narrow gate experience.
The Gospel of Matthew reveals how Jesus taught His followers. He taught the crowd, opponents, and disciples alike. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest and best-known account of Jesus’s teaching.
After periods of teaching, Jesus taught His followers in the classroom of experience. Sometimes they had resounding success, but most often they failed and had to be redirected by the Lord. The men and women who followed Jesus walked a narrow road as they daily learned how to respond to the effective reach of God’s power.
The initial calling to discipleship is the narrow gate, but the continual education in discipleship is the narrow road.
Narrow Gate Stories
There was a hardworking and kind man in the community where I began my ministry. His wife and daughter prayed fervently for his conversion and got him to attend church with them on occasion.
One Sunday morning, the presence of the Holy Spirit was evident, and this man was clearly being drawn to the Lord. The sanctuary was small, and I was able to see his knuckles turn white as he grasped the back pew, facing a crisis of faith. Instead of going through the narrow gate to Jesus, he literally left the pew, walked out the church door, and walked through the wide gate.
I don’t know what sort of cost this man believed there would be in following Jesus. He was a good man and a loving husband and father. Something triggered in his mind, and he chose the wide gate that leads to destruction.
One of my friends walked through the narrow gate and began following Jesus about 10 years ago. In his previous life, he was like many of my friends—a drug addict. Even though he was an addict, he maintained a job and functioned pretty well in society.
Not everything was perfect for my friend along the wide gate and wide road. In fact, as Moseley observed, he was living in hell on the way to hell. Just as He did with the outcast Matthew at his tax booth, Jesus invited this man to follow Him. He willingly walked through the narrow gate.
I tell this story because of how he has joyfully walked along the narrow path that leads to life. He is constantly learning what Jesus teaches, both through a study of the Bible and, most notably, through life experiences. I have several spiritual heroes, and this man is one of them because he chose the narrow gate and narrow path of discipleship.
A Daily Decision
Take a moment and think back on the time when you walked through the narrow gate of discipleship. How did Jesus meet you and invite you to become one of His followers? Did you struggle with this decision, or did you see it as a blessing of God’s grace?
The bigger question is, are you on the narrow road today? I know too many people who walked through the narrow gate but believed they could walk the broad path and be okay.
What will it take for us to stay on the narrow road? The first followers of Jesus knew and did their best to follow God’s will. They willingly accepted correction and encouragement from Jesus.
The narrow road may seem hard, but as Laubach noted, it makes everything else easier.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube. You can find it on the Bob Spradling channel.
Note: I will be away from my computer for a couple of days, so I am providing two blog articles ahead of when the videos will be available.
Real Voices 