Hello! How are you doing? Well, I am back again with a revelation on the narrow path to eternal life while I was on my summer vacation just a few weeks ago.
If you are interested in reading other revelations and musings on this blog, you can find them here.
The Hike
During our recent trip to the mountains, my husband and I went on a 3.5-hour hike to a huge waterfall. As we were walking, I was praying quietly because that is what I usually do, especially in the mountains. The morning was cold in the mountains, even though it was summer, so we were dressed in appropriate hiking attire and some jackets to protect ourselves from the cool weather. When we started to climb, I struggled a bit to climb, since I hadn’t gone for walks in the mountains this year. A litte while later, my husband told me that we would need to remove our jackets soon because the sun was coming out and the climb was becoming steeper.
The Revelation
The Holy Spirit reminded me that climbing the mountain is similar to our spiritual journey if we want to go to higher levels in faith and see things from God’s perspective. In the natural, the lighter our load, the easier it is to climb the mountain. Similarly, if we want to reach higher levels in our walk with God, we cannot carry all our wordly burdens with us. It will make the journey much more difficult. We would have to leave our worldy burdens and weight behind, even before we attempt to climb to higher vantage points.
How To Make Your Burden Light?
How can we let go of worldly burdens? According to 1 Peter 5:7, we must cast all our problems, doubts, and worries on the Lord because He cares for us. We need to trust Him to take care of us, which will free up space in our hearts and minds for Him. It’s important that we make space for Him and let go of everything else that is troubling us, as the enemy would like to keep us preoccupied and prevent us from focusing on God. This will prevent us from ascending to higher levels with the Lord as we keep our focus on the world and its burdens instead of the Lord and His word.
The Narrow Path On the Mountain
Once we reached the mountain, we had to walk on a narrow and strenuous path. The Lord reminded me that this is similar to the narrow path to eternal life. Some people on the mountain were using hiking staffs to walk on the mountain. Walking on this mountain path was initially quite difficult for me because of a lack of practise this year. I found myself straying away from the narrow path due to the many stones on it, despite wearing excellent mountain shoes. The constant climbing and the presence of stones in this path on the mountain made me annoyed and exhausted. I attempted to walk on soft grass nearby instead of walking on the marked narrow path, only to discover that it was soggy and had hidden holes where water ran from streams underneath.
The Narow Path To Eternal Life
After a while, I became accustomed to the narrow marked path of the mountains, and the Holy Spirit revealed that walking the narrow path to eternal life is very similar to this experience. When a person is newly saved (or when they have strayed from the narrow path for too long), he or she may struggle to walk on the narrow path to life because their flesh and old habits get in the way. They desire comfort, wanting to walk on a wider, softer and comfortable path, only to realize the difficulties later. We might also want to return to the old lifestyle seeing how difficult walking the narrow path is, just like me trying to walk on the grass to make the hike easier only to find out it was not a good idea.
However, by persevering and persisting on the narrow path with the help of the Holy Spirit, we eventually adapt and overcome initial challenges. Gradually, the exhaustion fades, and we learn to walk the narrow path successfully.
Avoid Distractions
I’ve found that walking on a narrow path in the mountains requires a lot of focus. You can’t afford to be distracted when you’re surrounded by rocks and stones because one wrong move and you could end up hurting yourself. Similarly, the narrow path to life is uncomfortable and requires a lot of focus, but it’s worth it because it leads to “Eternal life”. We mustn’t allow distractions to steer us off course or lead us away from the path, causing us to lose sight of God. Losing focus while walking the narrow path to eternal life is quite dangerous and could cost us a lot.
In the mountains, there are usually markers to guide hikers. Spiritually, the Holy Spirit serves as our marker, leading us on the paths of righteousness. Nowadays, there are many distractions like social media, television, and news that try to occupy our time if we allow it. These things distract us easily and make us spend hours on them. However, we must make a conscious and intentional effort to keep our focus on the Lord and be in His word every day.
Conclusion
It is truly amazing how God gets our attention when our mind is in the present and when we concentrate on doing something not so serious just like our mountain hike. It was an amazing yet exhausting hike, but it was worth it. We had a sense of accomplishment in the end. I hope you enjoyed this revelation and got something out of it and that it is useful to you in your walk with God.
If you have similar stories and revelation from the Lord, write them down in the comments below to encourage others. I would love to read it.
Until Next Time!