Enter through the narrow gate because the wide gate and broad path is the way that leads to destruction - nearly everyone chooses that crowded road! The narrow gate and the difficult way leads to eternal life - so few even find it!
Matthew 7:13-14
There is a game that children play called follow the leader, I stand and march, so do you, I raise one hand in the air, so do you. For some of us, our parents and guardians are our leaders and we copy them, you prance around in heels because you watched your mother do it or play with the tools pretending to fix things like you saw your dad do. Sometimes we follow our friends and that can end with trouble, I'm sure we've all heard if they told you to jump off a cliff would you jump?
But seriously would you jump? Would you jump off the cliff if God told you to, knowing that His hand is ready to catch you?
I don't mean a literal cliff, there are many things in our lives that represent cliffs; jumping off the cliff of our career for the past 10 years into a new one, jumping off the cliff of our comfort zone into new challenges, jumping off the cliff of pride into welcoming vulnerability, jumping off the cliff of depending on your family to being independent. Sometimes following the leader is scary, take for instance there's a path that leads to two junctions, the right path is narrow with an overcast of grey clouds. The left path is much wider, with colourful flowers growing and the skies are clear with sunshine. It's obvious which road to take isn't it? But the leader says we have to choose the narrow path. The rule of the game after all is follow the leader.
What looks good usually attracts us right? Like how the fruit in the Garden of Eden looked good, perhaps even ripe and juicy, it never stated that it was a bad fruit, it just wasn't good for Adam and Eve right?
Proverbs 16:25 says before every person there is a path that seems like the right one to take, but it leads straight to hell! (TPT)
How can we know what's good for us, like which path we should take? The wider road seems the much better fit, because it looks easy and there's good weather. But, what you fail to realise is that it's all an illusion to lure you into choosing the path, then once you've started the journey and you're getting comfortable, familiarising yourself with the lush surroundings - you're trapped. You start to feel like a storm is brewing inside of you, rather than it actually being stormy weather. The sunshine and flowers aren't tampered with, because when the next follower comes to the junction, they need to be enticed by the same appealing scenery. As you look ahead you see other followers walking, and you try to run up to them but your feet are heavy and you look down to see a pair of shackles anchored to you. Suddenly it's not the road you wished you took.
The narrow path is not easy at all, it's challenging and requires great effort, there's wind blowing ferociously that sometimes you feel you're going to be swept away, there's no sunshine and flowers, but none of that matters because the leader is in front of you. On the other path you chose to be your own leader, and led yourself to destruction as you didn't know the way. The leader does know the way, and no, it's not a mistake that he lead you to the narrow path, because this path is best for you as you learn, grow, become stronger in yourself that you can make decisions using the wisdom that the leader taught you. It starts off grey and dull, but eventually you see the light and realise the light is coming from within you! That it doesn't matter the storm because the leader is there to help you and guide you.
See follow the leader may have been a fun game as a child, but there comes a point when you wander from your parents grasp and meet this particular junction. You have a choice to make to follow the leader who is Jesus Christ, or choose the other path where the enemy is waiting to ensnare you.
I almost forgot that in the game, the leader would choose a different person to be the leader and hand over authority, you are to be a leader to someone and all authority has been handed to you, do well to lead them to right path.
Choose wisely.