The Narrow Gate

Have you ever been somewhat obliviously reading your Bible? I mean, not even thinking about a particular area of your life ~ thinking you are no where near any scripture that's going to speak to you about a particular thing, and WHAMMO! There it is.

Well, that happened to me yesterday. I was reading Matthew 7. There's nothing about being a godly wife there, right? Apparently, wrong.

"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." Matt. 7:13-14

This is such a familiar section of scripture, but as I read it yesterday I was impressed with how this not only applies to our salvation, but to being a godly wife as well. The advice and encouragement we get from the world, the leanings of our own flesh ~ these are the wide way. But to live a godly life; to serve our husbands, to sacrificially love them, to choose not to be hurt but to respond in a loving way ~ this is the narrow way.

I appreciate Jesus being upfront with us. The narrow gate leads to the hard way...which leads to life. If I take the wide, "easy" way it leads to destruction. If I live to please myself, not thinking about my beloved or honoring and submitting to him, eventually, I will destroy my marriage ~ much like the woman of folly in Proverbs 14. But if I choose the narrow gate, leading to the hard way, I will be like the wise woman who builds her house. It is often difficult to honor and submit to my husband. Not because he is a difficult man, but because my flesh rebels against it. It is difficult to love and serve him as I know God would have me, because essentially, I am a lazy soul. To serve him in a sacrificial manner, I must put aside the things *I* want to do, and think of him first. I have to use self-control to walk the narrow way because it sometimes means that I need to keep my bountious opinions to myself. It means that I have to exercise faith, because when I disagree with my beloved, I have to trust that God is guiding him anyway.

There are many ways in which being a godly wife is a hard and narrow way, but it is the way that leads to life, and for our marriages, it leads to great blessing. The way who find it are few ~ I pray you will bless your husband by being one of those few.