Those that “serve the Lord” know what they do isn’t a J.O.B.—it’s a J.O.Y.! We can be glad today for life, liberty and the pursuit of loving God. We serve the Lord with all of our heart. We let God’s grace flow in all that we do. We display God’s autograph for all to see. We’re God’s workmanship created for all of eternity. And we are not at all ashamed of the gospel.
As we walk and live among people, the gods of thousands abound, and our God isn’t always openly welcomed. Therefore, serving the Lord will always lead us down the less traveled narrow road of life.
For example, the athlete who puts himself under a stricter and stricter regime of training denies himself what others feel free to indulge in. He then finds physical life and freedom, for he enters by the narrow door.
The student who burns the midnight oil, gathers up spare moments, and denies himself many things, then finds himself free at last and at home with the ages. He has found intellectual life by the narrow door.
The musician who goes through years of self-denying practice, setting up higher and higher standards, is at last free and at home in the land of harmony. He has found freedom by the narrow door into the musical life.
The Christian who spends hours, weeks, months, and years of his lifetime sitting at the feet of Christ for spiritual strengthening, encouragement, and godly wisdom, doesn’t just find life for himself. He learns how to personally demonstrate, and how to instruct others to take what may appear to be a quiet and lonely road ... but is actually the only road to eternal freedom. But each must still enter by the narrow door.
The footprints of Jesus and His followers are found on the narrow road—the one chosen by only the few. Daily we must see fresh footprints of our Lord. And they are always on the narrow road. "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and road is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
If you want to find life here and now, you must find it through a narrow gate of self-renunciation. Keeping in step with Jesus is the required daily workout for service in God’s kingdom.
