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The Hard Way

"There is a way that seems right..." (Proverbs 16:25)

How many times have we heard this truth referred to, spoken about, and preached on. And the second phrase of the quote includes the consequences of the first phrase, "...but the end thereof (result) is death". To many, the way that seems right is the way that seems to be the easier way.

When events and expectations seem to just fall into place, we are inclined to assume that it must be the right way. We take the easier way as prima fascia proof that it must be the best way. We seldom cast suspicion on what seems to be right. We really want the right way to be easy. We even urgently strain for it, and agonize for this right way to be or become the easiest.

However, this is rarely the painful truth. Often - very often - the right way is the hard way. At times, the easiest way turns out to be the right, or best, way. But not often. When we ponder the scope of Biblical history - even world history - we see that the right way had to be struggled for, dug deep to find, and even fought for.

How could this be?

To comprehend the issue, we must first realize what, and who, is in control of our world. Yes, even your world. Your ever-day life and walk upon this earth. This earth, and all that inhabits in it, belong to God. He made it, Its His. He is the Owner of it. In reality, He owns everything on it and in it - including mankind. Including you and me. I remember, as perhaps you do too, the event of man's first escape from the gravitational pull of the earth. We heard expressions like "mankind has now escaped the confines of the earth".

It would have been prudent for everyone to recall the subtle statement in the Bible that all of us are "prisoners in the earth" (Lamentations 3:34). The word "in" rather than the word "on" is very significant, as we have since discovered. All that is affected by gravity is part of "the earth".

Also the invisible and unseen ruler is one other than God for now. But the truth is Satan the devil is now controlling everything on (in) this earth. As such, he creates circumstances and events that seem to indicate that his way is the easy way, therefore the right way. The right way to live, even the right way to relate to God, as is evident in the existence of multiple religions, political philosophies, and organizations.The god of this world often implies God's way is unnecessarily difficult, and his way easier.

Jesus said that we should pray that we would enter the strait and narrow way. This is the way that seems hard, and seems difficult and logically not a very good choice. Jesus commands us to pray that we enter that way, and that we will not need a hard lesson to teach us to enter that straight and narrow way, that seems like not a good way. In Matthew 11He laments over the cities where He had witnessed that did not believe Him and respond accordingly. In the last three verses, He contrasts the way they could have had that would have led to the best way.

But by rejecting Him, they had chosen the broad, logical, and easier way that would eventually lead to an unimaginable hard way.They were convinced by their own standard of righteousness that their way - the easier way - must be right. The difficult way of Jesus conflicted with their history and their logic. There is a righteousness of the natural mind that seems more logical and much easier. But underneath the layer of deception by Satan, there lies the way to eternal death. They could not believe that Jesus' way would lead to everlasting life. But their way - the "easier way" would lead them to death.

Which have you chosen? The way that "seems right", or the seemingly difficult way of the "straight and narrow" that leads to eternal life? Only the way of the righteousness of Christ living in you - the hard, the difficult, the straight and narrow way - leads to eternal life, peace, and joy, forever.

Will you choose that "road less traveled"...?

"Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it. But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it." - Matthew 7:13-14 (AMP)

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

Washed by the Water of the Word