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Choosing the Trail

Read: Matthew 7:13–14 | Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 1–2; 1 Timothy 3

Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7:14

I have a beautiful autumn photograph of a young man on horseback in the Colorado mountains as he contemplates which trail ahead to follow. It reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.” In it, Frost ponders two pathways that lie before him. Both are equally inviting, but he doubts he will return to this place again, and he must choose one. Frost wrote, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

In Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), the Lord told His listeners, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad 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” (7:13–14).

On our journey through life, we face many choices about which road to travel. Many pathways seem promising and attractive but only one is the pathway of life. Jesus calls us to travel the road of discipleship and obedience to God’s Word—to follow Him instead of the crowd.

As we ponder the road ahead, may God give us wisdom and courage to follow His way—the road of life. It will make all the difference for us and those we love!

Lord, as we go through this day, give us eyes to see the narrow road that leads to life and the courage to follow it.

Choose to walk the road of life with Jesus.

By David C. McCasland | See Other Authors
INSIGHT
Life is all about choices—and their consequences. As author Robert Louis Stevenson put it, “Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” We see this throughout the Scriptures as our first parents hid from God in the ancient garden (Genesis 3:8), Moses was forbidden to enter the promised land (Deuteronomy 32:52), David was confronted by the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12), and after denying his Lord, Peter wept bitterly (Luke 22:62). By the same token, Moses counseled the Israelites to choose the things of life (Deuteronomy 30:19), and Solomon warned those who do not choose to fear the Lord (Proverbs 1:28–29). Why is this so important? In Psalm 25:12, David sang, “Who, then, are those who fear the Lord? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.” When the wisdom of God guides us in our choices, we have less reason to fear the consequences those choices might bring.

For more on choices and their consequences, check out the Discovery Series booklet Eve and Rahab: Learning to Make Better Choices at discoveryseries.org/hp031.

Bill Crowder