[...] Jesus has set before us two paths to travel through life, and we must choose one. He offers us a narrow path, which, although it is “contracted by pressure,” leads to life. He also offers us a broad path that is easier to travel but leads to destruction. Our temptation is to take the easy way, but it is not the best way. This could be a place where many people would use the excuse “It is just too hard.”

It is interesting that the narrow path, the one that leads to life, includes pressure. This is because the devil will do anything he can do to prevent us from taking the path that leads to a life we can enjoy. Notice that there are few who take the narrow path, but many take the broad path, not realizing, I’m sure, that it will lead to destruction, even though they have been warned.

If we choose to do the hard thing now, we will reap an abundant harvest (the fruit or results of our choices) in eternity. But if we take the easy path now, we will experience destruction and misery in eternity. We should begin now to live for eternity. We should not simply live for the moment, because it passes in the blink of an eye, and we are left with the consequences and results of the choices we made in it.

I pray that you will be a person through whom God can work in the days in which we live. Ask yourself if you are more concerned with God’s will than with your own will. Does your heart break with what breaks God’s heart? Are you willing to sacrifice in order to be someone God can use to change the world and help get things back on His track? It is good for all of us, including me, to take a personal inventory occasionally and ask ourselves if we are still swimming upstream against the current in the world or if we are merely floating downstream with everyone else because that is easier than living according to God’s ways.

James 1:22 says that if we hear God’s Word and don’t do it, it is because we deceive ourselves through reasoning that is contrary to the truth. We know what we should do, but we find a reason to think that not doing it is all right, thereby excusing our disobedience. There should never be an excuse to disobey God.

When I become angry over something Dave has said or done, I don’t want to talk to him or even be in the same room with him, but I refuse to let my emotions control me, because I know they will lead me toward destruction. Although sometimes I need a cooling-off period, I make the decision to talk to Dave even if I don’t want to, and I refuse to avoid him, because I know division is what the devil wants.

What about your emotions? Do you let them prevent you from doing what you know you should do? If you tend to follow your emotions, you can change that today by making the decision to do so. You can feel your feelings, but you cannot follow them and be a mature Christian. Always make the decision to do what God wants you to do, and you will be victorious in life. Emotions are deceptive. Sometimes they are good, and other times they are bad. We all have them, and they will not go away. We simply need to learn how to manage them and not let them manage us.