Read Matthew 7:13,14
“Dear, dear
____________, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open,
spacious life. We didn’t fence you in.
The smallness you feel comes from within you.
Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with
great affection. Open up your lives.
Live openly and expansively!” 2 Corinthians 6:11-13 The Message (Please
insert your name in the above blank.)
A wide-open, spacious life is scary. We like fences and walls to tell us where the
limits are. Strict guidelines that tell us what we can and cannot do. Where we
can safely go and what we should stay far away from. Hallways and roadway with no doors or exits
so we don’t wander off from our goal of perfection. Give us rules to follow, a bold straight line
to walk, so we won’t mess up this Christian life. Isn’t that what Jesus meant when He said, “The way is narrow that leads to life”?
No! A thousand times NO! He came that you might have life, and have it
abundantly. (John 10:10) A life that is full of life. Living out the joy of your salvation. “It was
for freedom that Christ set us free.” (Galatians 5:1) Free to love with
abandonment. Free to give without measure. Free to be all that a new creation
in Christ can be. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Free to live a life centered around
Christ - a wide-open, spacious life that
circles out in unlimited potential. We
are talking kingdom living here, and His kingdom is definitely not narrow or
small.
Narrow way IS NOT narrow living! The reason the way is
narrow is because the doorway is narrow.
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father
but through Me.” (John 14:6) Like the famous poem about
footprints in the sand, there is only one set of footprints. We follow in the footsteps of Jesus into this
wide, wonderful new world of His kingdom.
The world’s way is a massive mess of everyone trying to find their own
way into a life with meaning and purpose.
Luke 13:24 says “Strive to enter through
the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Why? Because they are not looking for
Jesus. HE is the door. (John 10:9) Unfortunately, the wide gate they
think is the answer to security, purpose and significance actually “leads to destruction.” And let me add, disappointment, deception,
disillusionment, and a very small life.
Jesus lived and died with heart and arms wide open. He invites us to live now and forever in the
wide expanse of His love and grace. But
we have to choose to “open up our lives. Live openly and expansively! That means opening up our eyes, hearts and hands to
loving freely and generously. It also
means identify the smallness of being isolated, narrow-minded, judgmental, opinionated,
self-centered, and arrogant. Our
standard of what is a wide-open, spacious life and what is narrow is not
others, but Jesus. “This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life
Jesus lived.” (1 Peter 2:21
MSG)
The invitation is extended to you. It is time to tear down the fences and live
wonderfully wide!
Making It
Personal
What are some of the walls and fences that you have
built (or inherited) that make being a Christian comfortable, powerful, and
controllable?
How can being “religious” actually result in smallness
rather than living a wide-open spacious kingdom life?
These fences and self-imposed safeguards are
strongholds that keep us in and others out. What does 2 Corinthians 10:5 call
them?
How does “taking
every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” and thinking with the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) result
in greater freedom and width of thinking, believing and living?
There is little risk within fences. What danger(s) do you fear when
there are no fences?
What is the warning and safeguard against this danger given in
Galatians 5:13?
What do you imagine a wide-open, spacious life in Christ truly looking
like? What is holding you back?
