I'm quickly learning that reading the New Testament at this pace is a different experience, but a valuable one. It was easy this morning to envision myself sitting on a hillside, listening to Jesus say one amazing and profound thing after another, and hardly being able to take it all in. Ironically, however, I think I was able to get the big picture of what He was saying more than I have in the past when I have tried to dissect each statement.
I had a new impression made on me this morning from the Amplified version of the Bible, and a look back at the Greek language for chapter 7:14. It reads "But the gate is narrow ( contracted by pressure) and the way is straightened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it.""
Trying to take in all that Jesus shares in the sermon on the mount has most certainly at times left me feeling "contracted by pressure" or "straightened and compressed". Any time we battle our flesh to submit it to His Spirit, the wrestling that goes on there is uncomfortable! But just as a gate leads to a beautiful open pasture, "squeezing" through that process just releases us into a freedom of life in His Spirit that our flesh would have never fully satisfied us with. His truth is always amazing... and always requires us to step out on faith and sometimes into that uncomfortable zone before we get to experience it!
Have a blessed day - and be open to any "squeezing" He may bring your way! ;)
1 comment:
Now I know why I always feel like an empty tube of toothpaste. :)
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