Wide and Easy

I don't want to admit this, but over the course of my life, I've tended to take the easy way -- all the way down to small, insignificant matters like cutting corners on chores.

This is a character trait of mine that I don't want. You might say, "boy, I wish that was my main struggle." Well, before you get too far with wishing you could trade places, let me tell you that this character flaw really damages a lot of areas in my life. See, I take the easy way. My tendency is to relax and let sin enter my life. Sometimes I don't even care. I don't care enough to fight it -- to take every thought captive... I can fall into the same sin over and over again and just become calloused. It's easier this way.

What would be hard is to actually fight. It'd be hard to seek the Lord each and every day and ask him to fill me up so that I didn't need all the sin in my life. See, it's difficult to ask God to fill us up for a couple reasons. First, we're so used to getting all our needs from other sources. It's easier. Second, if we're honest, we think we like the fulfillment we get from those other sources more than we like it coming from God.

It's far easier to walk down this road where we wake up every day and begin to plan on how we're going to meet all our needs apart from God. O that I should ever start my day not thinking about the utter dependency I have upon God for every need!

But no one does that! Everyone plans on meeting their needs themselves. (Hence the worry, stress, fear, lust... sin!)

Then I read this: "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:13-14)


Father, thank you for forgiving me for my sin -- for the blatant sin that I committed today and everyday in my life. It is nearly unbelievable that you would send your Son to die so that I could be forgiven. You amaze me so much. I love you. I don't want to continue to sin against you, Lord. My heart knows you are the only place my needs will truly and eternally be met, but my head forgets each day and I slip and fall. Teach my mind to understand you more. Not from a book or a teacher, but from experiencing you everyday in my life.

May my prayer truly be as it says it Proverbs 30: "Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" Make the circumstances in my life such that I cannot forget you -- take what you need.

O that I would begin each day by looking to you for my needs. O that I would believe that the majority of people are walking a broad, easy road to destruction. Father, I do not deserve to be on this narrow road. It goes to prove your greatness and your worthiness when people look at my weakness and unworthiness. How great you truly are.