Episode 597

TODAY’S READING

12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

13 “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.

Matthew 7:12-13

It’s great for us to take today and every day into our lives. But I want to dissect verse 12; first, it says for whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. And I think that is a great golden rule to hold on to. If you feel like you don’t have great friendships in your life and then ask yourself if you’ve been a good friend to others, and if you wish that you would have a deeper relationship with your significant other, ask yourself are you going deeper when you are discussing your life with that person? So the same can be said not just in your relationship with your significant other and your friends but also in your work environment. 

If you feel your employer could be better, have you been a great employee back to them? And that little rule can be used in almost every instinct of our life. It is a golden rule, for sure. And then beyond that, we’re talking about how we can live life one of two ways we can live life, the easy way, the way that the world lives life, and we will find a very wide road in which everybody walks through the way that everybody does things, and it’s very easy to find yourself on this wide road, or you can limit yourself, look to the ways of the Lord, and they might be a little bit more restricting, and the ways might be a little bit more narrow, but through the narrow gate we find life and life more abundantly, and those who find it are few. So this is just saying we want a good life. We have to live life a certain way. And if we want great things to happen to us, we also need to be great to other people. So whatever you do today, whatever it is that you are up to, whether that’s at work, whether you are off today, whether you have some activities that you’re going to be partaking in, look at yourself, look at your life and ask yourself are you living by the golden rule? Are you doing to others what you wish would be done to you? Are you acting and behaving in a way that is narrow? 

That is the way of God that might be to others restricting but to us so liberating because we know through the narrow gate we find life. So ask yourself, what are things that you can remove from your life? What are habits that you can change, and what behaviors you can implement to better serve the people of God in return? You’ll see how God continues to serve you.

Prayer:

Father God, we thank you, Lord, for a beautiful Wednesday. We thank you for the ability to gather in your name to learn more about you and for us to continue to go deeper in our studies for today. We read on the golden rule to do to others well; what would they would do to us, and so that means that we will continue to be a blessing in other people’s lives so that they can continue to be a blessing in our lives. Lord, if we’re looking for deep friendships, may we first be a friend with one another. We ask that you continue to give us the strength to live life. Through the narrow gate may we look for the narrow gate may we do life your way. May we continue to be strict in our ways, not because we are restricted, Lord, but because we are liberated when we find life and life more abundant through the gate that you have for us. God, we ask that you continue to bless this beautiful Wednesday. We ask that Your Son Jesus continue to watch over us and continue to model a life that we want to live. We thank you for absolutely everything; it is in your son’s mighty name that we pray. Amen.