The Narrow Way

Galatians 6:2 (ESV) “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

2 Thessalonians 3:6-10 (NIV) “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."”

James 5:13-16 (NIV) “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

The life that the Lord greatly desires us to have cannot be understood through the wisdom and intelligence that this world offers to us. The Lord very directly tells us that His ways are not our ways or the ways of the world. His thoughts are much higher than our thoughts. The Lord tells us that the default tendency of humanity is to look at the outside instead of the inside. God looks at the heart, and He is greatly pleased when our life flows from His work in our hearts rather than our pathetic attempts to look good and to feel good. Our human ways of thinking MUST be reformatted by God’s thoughts if we are to experience what He so much wants to give us. One of the ways that the Lord does this is by calling us to walk the narrow way. At times it seems like this narrow way is like the edge of a knife. We fall off of it into one extreme or the other so easily. In fact, that is exactly the truth. The only way we can follow the narrow way of the Lord is to keep our eyes focused on Him. It is not in ritual or rules that we keep the narrow way but in relationship.

For example, some people have a hard time receiving help from others. They have been taught to bear their own burdens, and that is certainly right to do. The apostle Paul is very clear that each of us need to work and not be idle. However, at some point our burdens become too heavy for us to bear, and we must allow others to help us bear those burdens. This is also right, and it fulfills the law of Christ! We must allow others to show their love for us by receiving and even asking for help in our time of need. Yet, there are also those who are just plain lazy and depend on others to bear their burdens for them when they are able to do so on their own. How are we to know when it is the right time to bear our own burdens and when it is the right time to receive help from others? The Spirit of God will show us as we learn how to depend on Him. We cannot make a rule that shows us how to do this. The unspiritual person needs rules to follow so that they don’t need to be dependent on following the Spirit. The spiritual person has learned how to keep in step with the Spirit.

Recently, I spoke with a Christian who had a chronic physical problem but would not allow me to prayer for her. I was shocked that a believer would not want to be prayed for, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is common among Christians. There is a subtle deception that we too easily buy into that says, “I can handle it myself.” If we are going to follow the way of Christ, however, we must take the initiative and in essence say, “I need help. I can’t do it myself.” If we are not coming to our brothers and sisters for prayer, we are not only keeping ourselves from the life and power that God wants us to experience, we are also keeping them from being a part of fulfilling their calling to serve and bear their brother or sister’s burdens.