The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:15-23 (day four)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the phrase “cheap grace” in his famous book, The Cost of Discipleship. He describes cheap grace as a grace that requires no repentance, no sacrifice, and ultimately no cross. We want Jesus’ free gift without having to do anything in response. I think this is what Jesus is warning us about here. There will be people who talk like they know Jesus, but never truly surrender their lives to him, never suffer with him, and never know him intimately.

Of course, grace is given to us freely by a gracious God. We don’t have to earn it or “purchase” it on our own, but that doesn’t mean it’s not costly. Grace calls us to become more like Christ. Grace calls us to rid our lives of sin so that we can make room for the Spirit. Grace calls us to participate in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Grace calls us to lay our lives down so that we may have life abundant.

This is a great passage for us to meditate on as we begin the season of Lent. A season where we’re challenged to pray, “more of You, and less of me.” This creates the room for the Spirit to work in us and produce this good fruit by which we are known.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:15-23 (day three)

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Who did Jesus refer to time and again throughout his sermon as having taught his listeners? Hypocrites, or actors. Eager for the best seats at the banquets? Actors. Making prayer into performance art? Actors. Skirting the law for their own financial gain and in so doing devouring widows’ houses and depriving the elderly of financial support? Actors. Laying claim to the mantle of Moses and with it the special status of a select few blessed by God? Actors. These actors, also known as teachers of the law, are very good at their primary craft – acting. “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.” And Jesus says, “What does that have to do with anything?”

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:15-23 (day two)  You will know them by their fruits. vs. 16a

Discernment is a skill set unsuited to our current cultural psyche. We don’t have to truly determine value and worth because there are so many other voices doing that for us. Speeches are “fact checked” in real time, and then are dissected the instant they are finished. We speak of the damage social media does to our society, and we all have several different forms on our devices. How many of us truly walk away from the constant ‘noise’ of those feeds?

Discernment is not a sound bite you can fit into a post on ‘X’. Discernment will not be found on any ‘Insta Influencer’s’ posts. When trying to determine truth from deception you will need a longer attention span. A bruised fruit and a bad fruit are not the same. We all sin, that is our fallen nature. The difference in Jesus’ analogy is that he is asking you to weigh the teaching over time, against all that you know of God. Is truth found there? Does it hold up? Truth doesn’t tell you what you want to hear. It is truth. Let us pray for discernment as we make decisions for ourselves, our families, our church, and our world.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:13-14 (day seven)

For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Every day we are presented with an opportunity to help guide people down the narrow path to eternity. Yet, there are pinnacle moments that help us become intentional this endeavor. One such moment for our Youth Family is Freedom Weekend. This next week over 100 students will gather together to worship King Jesus. They will be immersed in the Word of God though Bible Study and teaching. They will find Holy Fellowship spending the entire weekend together as they retreat from their normal pattern of life. This retreat is an opportunity for us to show them the narrow path that leads to life.

Will you pray for our students who will be attending? Will you pray for students who haven’t signed up that need to find the right path? Will you pray for the homes and hosts where the students will be retreating? Will you pray for the speakers and leaders who will show the path to these students?

Lord, let us see revival. Let us see hearts be made new. Let us see students turn from the wide path and commit their life to walk the narrow one that leads to you! Amen!

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:13-14 (day five)

Have you ever had a line-in-the-sand moment? A moment when you realize the gravity of something? Like holding your newborn baby girl (or boy) and thinking to yourself this is serious; there is no more playing around.

This is that moment in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s life and death. It’s serious.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:13-14 (day five) “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
There’s not much of a sales pitch in our text this week. Jesus doesn’t make the Christian life seem desirable at all- narrow, hard, few.  From  a human perspective, not a good marketing or advertising campaign. I’m always curious how much the commercials cost for “the big game”. This Sunday evening, advertisers will pay around seven million dollars for thirty seconds to make their products seem fun, adventurous, and widely known and used. What you won’t  hear too much this Sunday afternoon, is the “long game”. Jesus always has this in mind. In other words, the economy of the Kingdom of God is best understood and appreciated from an eternal perspective. Patience. Discipline. Courage. Endurance. That’s why He says through the small gate and on the narrow path there is life, and through the wide gate and broad path is destruction.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:13-14 (day four)

We’ve all heard it said that “nothing worth having is easy.” Yet, we’re constantly drawn to things that offer an easier, seemingly effortless way to reach our goals. We fall for commercials that say their product can make us lose weight without any effort on our part. We search for the magic pill that will heal all our ailments. We’re duped by schemes that promise us we will “get rich fast!”

But there are no shortcuts to the things in life that really matter. And our spiritual life follows the same pattern. There are no shortcuts to sanctification. There are no loopholes to having an intimate relationship with God. There’s no magic pill or “become godly fast!” scheme that gets us closer to Jesus.

That’s not how God designed us. Rather, it’s in the hour-to-hour, day-by-day, walking with Christ that we find we slowly but surely go from glory to glory. This can be maddening at times, as it often feels like we’re going one step forward and two steps back. But we can have faith that the God who created us for the day-by-day way to glory also has the patience to walk that road with us, as slow and winding as it seems, through the narrow gate and into eternity.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:13-14 (day three)

“The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Everything about Jesus runs counter to your expectations. Little is much, servanthood is greatness, the poor are celebrated, and now this. Does everything have to be counterintuitive? It’s only that way because you’ve been told that there’s safety in numbers: lots of dollars, lots of people, lots of admiration, lots of publicity, lots of approval. That way of life links security to external factors, though. That way of life tells you that there’s nothing worth much on the inside, so you’ve got to prop yourself up with whatever you can grab. But Jesus says you don’t need a Las Vegas-style entryway to convince you of your value. You’re already worth much to God, so come on towards him through the little gate.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:13-14 (day two)  

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Are you a fan of the Indiana Jones series? Well, I certainly am, and my favorite of them all is “The Last Crusade”. At the end of the movie, and I hope I’m not spoiling this, Indy has to face various trials in order to reach the Holy Grail. The scene cuts between Indy and his dying father. The trial is called “The Breath of God” and the father keeps muttering the phrase “only the penitent man will pass”. Indy realizes that a penitent man is humble before God and must, therefore, bend the knee. I will stop there, as it is a work of fiction.

As I re-read verse 14, I am struck by the visual image Jesus creates. Small and narrow are the words he chooses. If we take this idea of someone looking for these gates, you get two different pictures. The broad gate is easy to find. You don’t have to look hard, you will practically run in to it. The small, narrow gate requires you to seek after it. Jesus’ words create a picture, in my mind, of one who is humble, penitent, aware that something will be required for entry through this gate. The requirement is our very self. We must be prepared to humble ourselves and search for the untrodden path. Jesus will be found when we are penitent of heart.