“Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14 CSB)
Devotional
Which road are you on right now, without even deciding to be? Most of us don’t wake up and choose the wide road on purpose. We just take the easiest option in front of us, over and over, until years later we realise it added up to a direction. Skip the hard conversation. Numb out instead of pray. Say yes to whatever is comfortable and call it wisdom.
That’s what makes this verse land differently than it sounds at first. Jesus isn’t threatening anyone here. He’s describing something true: the wide gate is wide because almost nothing is asked of you to walk through it. It doesn’t require courage or sacrifice or trust. It just requires that you keep doing what’s easiest. The narrow gate is narrow because it actually costs something, and that cost is exactly why fewer people choose it.
I need this reminder as much as anyone. There are whole seasons where I’ve drifted toward the wide road simply because nobody made me stop and check. No crisis, no rebellion, just a slow accumulation of small, easy choices that quietly pulled me away from the kind of life I actually wanted to live. That’s usually how it happens. Nobody plans to end up far from God. They just stop resisting the current.
Here’s what I find strangely hopeful in this. Jesus isn’t scolding the crowd for being on the wide road. He’s inviting them, and us, to actually look at where our feet are already pointed and choose again. The narrow road is hard, but it isn’t hidden. It’s right there, and it leads somewhere real. Today is as good a day as any to notice which direction is easiest and ask whether easiest is actually where you want to end up.
Reflection
I want to be honest that most of my drift away from God hasn’t come from one big decision, it’s come from a hundred small ones I barely noticed I was making. I don’t think Jesus is asking me to make life harder for its own sake, I think he’s asking me to stop coasting. What would it look like this week to choose the road that actually costs me something instead of the one that just happens to be in front of me.
Prayer
Father, we confess that it’s so easy to drift without noticing, choosing whatever is comfortable and calling it fine. Thank you for being honest with us instead of letting us coast toward something that won’t actually satisfy us. Give us the courage this week to notice the easy road when we’re on it and choose the harder, better one instead. We want to walk toward you, even when it costs us something.