SOAP Journal based on Matthew 7 “Stay on Target!”

S = Matthew 7:12-14 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

O = Verse 12 is what we call the “Golden Rule” and it is said to sum up “the Law and Prophets”. Therefore, it must be more than merely outward behavior, but belief—loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. To find the “wide gate of destruction” we don’t have to struggle, for it is the way of the world to deliver us there directly. If I was to write a bumper-sticker summary of how to get to the wide gate it would be, “Laissez-faire will get us there!” But Jesus love doesn’t leave us to our own devices. He sets us free to seek the narrow gate (leading to life) that requires us to lay aside all of our baggage, pride, agenda, etc. confessing that we can’t save ourselves. The way is hard because we are either “swimming upstream (like trying to enter the Old City of Jerusalem after Muslim prayer times and everyone is coming out) or we are cutting cross-current from the way that the “many” are headed.

A = I need to live the Golden Rule not just in my behavior which is quite a challenge, but as a response to God’s love, in faith with concentration and commitment to the “narrow gate”. I hope that my passion to follow Christ will make it easier for others to follow Christ and seek his plan. Yet I still feel the current tugging on me to compromise with the crush of humanity headed the wrong way. At times I also feel their judgment upon me for my counter-cultural values, yet it would not be loving for me to just fall in step on the road to the “wide gate.” I want to bear good fruit not bad. I desire to honor Jesus by trusting and obeying his word…building my house upon the rock! I am glad that I have had godly examples over the year to encourage and challenge me, so I must go and pay it forward. In the love of Christ, I’m heading for the narrow gate…want to come?

P = O Lord, let me lock onto the narrow gate, the hard way, remembering that this present discomfort is nothing compared to the eternal weight of glory. May others see the love that is the purpose of my values. Lord, let me not settle for less than your will! Amen.