The Road to Life - Daily Devotional for July 6, 2025

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Scripture

Matthew 7:13-14

“13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

A road less traveled. That is what came to my mind as I read these two verses. The road that leads to life is not the road most people are taking, just as the Bible reminds us in Matthew 7.

It's like a lot of things in life - you reap what you sow. If you out work everyone, you will get more done. If you out train everyone, you will be a champion. If you take the time every time to do it right, you will find the time back later.

The road less traveled is not easy. It isn't a short cut. Nor is the road that leads to life, as mentioned in this reading. Notice also that the wide gate where many enter, leads to destruction. Destruction! What is God trying to tell us with this? What is destruction? Destruction is defined as the "cause of someone's ruin" or "the action or process of causing so much damage to something that it no longer exists or cannot be repaired."

We will all take the wide gate when we are not walking with God. Sometimes even when we feel we are walking with God; we may still take the wide gate. Free will lures us to what is popular, what looks easier or more appealing, what feels better, to what dims our own light, so we don't stand out too much.

Someone once told me that when we pray, we need to be bold and specific. Bold and specific. We can specifically ask God to help us find the narrow gate with the road that leads to life. Put your fear at His feet in this prayer and be ready to go where He leads. I know my own fear gets in the way when God is trying to show me where he wants me to go, to the narrow gate.

If we pray so boldly, are we really ready and willing to go? In the Bible people left all their belongings, a past life behind, and even children and other family members to find God's narrow gate. It seems very few are willing to truly "go" in today's world. Yet how can we get one step closer each day to this gate, as we know the secret to making progress is simply getting started and not stopping. Many small steps lead to one great destination. Maybe God wants to use us right where we are at. Maybe our family and our community need us first.

Radical faith can lead us to God's true and richest blessings. Blessings we cannot even imagine. I am working to spend time with God each morning and truly putting my fear, laziness, and world stressors behind to see where God leads me in that very day. Today He led me to my computer. Not to do my traditional work, but to get working on this website. To start with just one daily devotional. This is it. I picked the book of Matthew randomly and read until a light bulb went off: a road less traveled.

I don't even want to be on the road more traveled, but unfortunately, I find myself there all the time. With slow drivers in the fast lane. With so many distractions it is easy to get off track. With bumper-to-bumper traffic that keeps us from shining our light for others and doing Kingdom work. Where is my exit? Dear God, please show us today what exit we need to take in order to find the narrow gate, with the road that leads to life.

Please pray with me.

Prayer

Dear God,

We live in a fallen world. There are so many questions we don't have answers to. There are uncertainties all around us. There is war. There is destruction. There are people struggling to survive. We don't know what tomorrow will hold. But, we know who holds tomorrow: You.  Help us to remember what our roles are in this world. To be a member of a body that puts love for others first, before anything else.

Who needs love today, oh Lord? Send us out to be your hands and feet. To be the embrace someone needs or the ears that hear someone's story. You have a narrow gate waiting for each one of us and we pray you will help us find ours. We are ready to take our exit off this road that leads to destruction. We don't want to go there.

We pray for the broken hearted, for those who are grieving, for those that have lost their way. We pray dear God for those who are suffering and being abused. Please let them find You in this very moment and see Your Light of Hope. Be their strength. Be their comfort. Send one of us.

Open our hearts, clear our minds, take our burdens, and lead us forth with radical faith. In You. If we want to live in a better world, lead us to be part of making it better. Whether that is far away from home, close to home, or maybe right in our home, lead us to love others above all else. To share our stories. To spread joy and hope and grace. To be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

We know the narrow gate very few find because we truly have to let down all of our guards, let go of all of our fear, and give with all of our hearts. It isn't an easy road, and we could never travel it alone. We wouldn't be strong enough or courage enough or loving enough. You make us all of those things by living in us. Help us depend on You, our rock, our strength, our courage, our hope, our Saviour, to lead us to Your will.

We love You. We thank You. We praise Your name on High. We ask for Your forgiveness. We ask for Your grace. We pray that Your will be done. We pray for each and every heart in this world. May we all find You however You show Yourself to us. May we hear Your voice in our heads above all of the other clutter.

In Jesus' Holy and Precious name, we pray,

Amen.