Living Loved - The Narrow Road - 0 views
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We are simply called to follow him, in the simplest of choices as best we recognize his invitations. As we do, his life will unfold in us with ever-increasing reality.
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You only have to have a heart that wants to follow him and he will teach you how he speaks to you and invites you into life.
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Listening to him is not living by feelings, but by recognizing those impulses he brings to your mind and following them. Initially they will encourage you to rest in his love and to be more gracious to people near you. In time, he will show you more of his wisdom to guide your life.
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You will only learn by practice. Yes, you will do some things you thought God was leading you to do, only to find out by the fruit of it that it was more your thought than his. That's part of the process. How else will you learn? But you'll also get some things right and the joy of that will help tune our heart to his. In the process, you'll be drawn closer to him and come to recognize your more selfish aspirations, and the misplaced trust you have in your own wisdom or abilities.
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You can usually tell if someone's listening to Jesus by how open and relaxed they are. If they are closed and defensive when someone questions them, be careful.
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One thing I know about people who listen to God, they don't act destructively and they aren't arrogant about what they think they hear. Learning to listen to God is a humbling process. You're never one hundred percent sure of what he's asking. You just have an impulse in your heart you can't explain. It grows over time, but he is never forceful or manipulative, and that is also true of people learning to listen to him. They can be firm, but not defensive and are always willing to sacrifice for others, instead of asking others to sacrifice for them.
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God does love you, but that love only transforms you to the degree that you can trust his love enough to follow him on to the narrow road. His love doesn't mean that everything will work out the way we want, nor that we won't be the victims of other people's hurtful and destructive choices.
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But he wants to be with us in those moments to help us navigate our experience in a broken world and be transformed through it. He invites us to participate with him, which is why love and obedience go hand in hand in the Scriptures. As you grow to trust his love you will want to obey him, and it's in following him that you get to live in the fruit of his love.
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Jesus repeatedly made clear that our actions matter. Scripture often invokes the reality of sowing and reaping to express this truth. How we live either leads us more into his life, or draws us away from it, whether we'll contribute to his redemption in the world, or be part of its destruction. That's what Jesus meant when he affirmed those who followed, Well done! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness! (Matt. 25: 21)
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If we follow a bit, the road will get clearer. If we follow our own way instead, we'll lose sight of him.
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That doesn't mean you have to be perfect for God to work in you, or that you can't reverse the trend any day you want to. He is always ready to lead you one simple step at a time and never asks for what you cannot give. Following in small things today will open more doors tomorrow. If we're indulgent and dishonest in little things, we will be indulgent and dishonest in larger things. If we can learn to follow him in simple ways of loving others and being true to our word even when it hurts, his work in us will grow in ways we'd never conceive.
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This is not about earning his life by our obedience, but participating with him as he transforms us. Everything I get to experience of God today began with simple choices years ago. They set off a chain of unforeseen consequences that opened doors to where I live now. The simple nudge to go to public schools with our children and volunteer to help began a series of opportunities that eventually led to twenty years of consulting public schools on religious liberty conflicts. Listening to Jesus say, "I have more to teach you if you walk away," when my former co-pastor wanted to force me out of the fellowship we helped build together, opened a trailhead into personal transformation I adore and opportunities for growing and sharing I would not have found without him.
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At the outset, all these choices looked more difficult than other options I had in mind. I'm glad he won me into following him and the choice to do so now is far easier. I don't even trust my own desires anymore because following him, even though painful at times, has always yielded better fruit.
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Learning to merge off of the broad way and onto the narrow road is a process that he wants to work in you, not a requirement he's made for you. It's simply a matter of learning to lean into him a bit more each day and leaning away from what draws you down the broader road. You can't do this alone. And this does not mean you have to carefully listen to Jesus at every moment and try to figure out what he wants so you won't miss out. Doing that will leave you frustrated and exhausted. We find his way much more simply than that. In fact, the anxiety of having to hear him will make it more difficult to do so. Instead go through your day with a growing awareness that he is with you. Whenever you have it, follow that inner sense that seems to encourage you one direction or checks you from going another. When you come up against choices of significance, ask him what he has in mind. Let him show you in his time. You don't have to hear something every day or in every circumstance. Relax in him as he connects your heart with his.
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Learning to live out of your spirit, rather than your intellect or emotions alone, will take some time. Ask him to show you the next step ahead and relax in a growing trust that he will. The Spirit makes his direction clear in a variety of ways--it might be that stray thought in your mind, affirmed by something that you read or hear, perhaps even a lyric of a song in the background that resonates with your heart. Don't look for a "voice" per se, but a growing awareness of his thoughts in your mind. Of course, familiarity with his words in Scripture and conversations with others on a similar journey will also bring clarity to what he's showing you.
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As I go about my life, I become aware of options that are better than my own, especially in helping someone near me, or drawing me into a quieter space with him. At first, I don't always like where these nudges would lead me, which is why Jesus saw this journey as a narrower road and why most people miss it. Our flesh so easily dismisses what it doesn't want to consider. And, no, you don't have to always get it right. No one does.
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As you make a few choices down the narrow road, you will find yourself becoming more relaxed and able to live in the moment instead of trying to manipulate your circumstances. The questions you'll find yourself asking might be these: What does he want to show me about himself today? What might love lead me to do in this situation? How does loving others, even at the expense of my self-interest perpetuate the kingdom? How does my forgiveness or service to someone else today, make the world a better place?
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But even when you miss him and find yourself on a path of your own making, he is there, too, still nudging you toward a better road. Don't be hard on yourself, just keep coming back to him over and over. You are loved, even in your brokenness. Today is the day God cares about. As they say, the best time to plant an oak tree was twenty years ago, but the second best time to plant it is today.
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As you learn to live more on the narrow road, you'll have a better idea just how destructive the broad way was, to yourself and others. Rather than be embarrassed by it, embrace that new reality. One of the most redemptive things we do on the narrow road is to go back to people we've wronged, seek their forgiveness and offer restitution where we can. Such moments bring great healing and clarity to all involved. Yes, it may not be easy, but that's exactly the point of the narrow road--most fruitful things aren't fun at the outset, but yield great joy later on.
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Perhaps the most effective form of discipleship is not teaching a curriculum, but simply being alongside others when they are at a fork in the road and being a cheerleader for the road less traveled. We don't have to manipulate or pressure them, but simply through a question or observation give them an opportunity to make a choice that matters. And if they make it, lend them our support and encouragement. That's how people find their way onto a journey that will be full of his life.
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The only reason why his way may seem difficult is because we're so busy following the crowd that we miss his invitation to a narrower road. But once we learn to believe him, it becomes far easier than most think possible. And though you'll find yourself on a road most others can't understand, it will change the way you think, live, and how you treat others. You'll find yourself on a transformative journey that you will never regret.
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The reason this journey seems so difficult is because it is far easier than we dare to believe! I know it isn't easy for people to find their way into a loving relationship with the Father. Everything we've learned and believed before runs counter to the dynamics of recognizing and resting in his love. However, it isn't difficult because God makes it complicated, or because it takes a certain skill set or sensitivity, but because we look in the wrong places for how his life takes root in us. But Jesus knows that too, and is still up to the challenge of engaging us in a fruitful relationship with his Father.
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Only the religious would twist them either to take pride in thinking they practice the right doctrine or ritual, and delight in the fact that those who don't will get what they deserve. Jesus didn't want to provoke exclusivity or fear with his words, but rather to equip hungry hearts to know how to know him. Following the broad way of self-interest will devour us, but there is a narrower path that will lead us to life.
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At first, everything in us wants to resist his nudge. No, it can't be that way. I could get hurt. I could make a mistake. What if it goes wrong? But if he's the one inviting us, we are safer doing what he asks than anything we do to save ourselves. We are not asked to indulge our preferences or live in resistance to them. We are simply called to follow him, in the simplest of choices as best we recognize his invitations. As we do, his life will unfold in us with ever-increasing reality.
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Making space for him and his thoughts and following them is the only way off the broader road. We find the narrow road when we find rest in his love for us and then recognize his leading as he offers us a different way to see what's going on around us. We often don't even see a new trailhead until he nudges us towards it.
