Words to Grow On

Archive Devotions

February 7, 2005

Keep Your Feet on the Narrow Way

by:

Elizabeth Roby

I moved over to the side of the seat, furthest away from the door, as if that could stop me from scraping against the cars on the passenger side as I rode to the small hotel where my friend and I were staying in Barcelona, Spain.

Captain Danilo Baptista laughed at me. The streets were narrow, and fine for motorcycle traffic, but not for a van. Cars were parked right up on the sidewalks and we passed them with room for a cat's whisker between the vehicles. The streets had been made centuries ago for horse and carriage traffic, not for the twenty-first century. But the way that led to the hotel was through narrow streets. There were no wider, easier ways to get to our destination.

Sidney Cox's song, "By the Pathway of Duty" came to mind. It starts out:

"There's a path that's sometimes thorny,

There's a narrow way, and straight:

It is called the path of duty,

And it leads to Heaven's gate.

While we tread this path of duty,

We will find our needs supplied

From the river of God 's mercy

That is flowing close beside."

This song is based on the verses found in Matthew's gospel, Chapter 7, Verses 13 and 14: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

There were wider streets in Barcelona . There was La Rambla leading from the port up to the Pla ç a de Catalunya, where the locals as well as the tourists congregated in hordes, filling the restaurants along the way. It was much easier for vehicle traffic than the narrow streets, but it did not lead to our hotel.  

It is not the wide, crowded attractive street that leads us to heaven, but

"´Tis a blessed way and holy

´Tis a path of peace and joy;

Though sometimes the way be stony,

And the cares of life annoy.

But this path that we call duty

Is the way the Master trod,

And the smile of love and beauty

Lights the way that leads to God."

Even narrower than those streets in Barcelona is the street in Jerusalem , known to us today as the "Via Dolorosa." For Jesus, this was the path of duty. It was truly the way of suffering that He had prepared for in great agony while praying in the garden. There was no other way for our salvation to be worked out, and because He trod that narrow way, this way leads to eternal life.

" As your days, so shall your strength be" we are told in Deuteronomy 33:25. We will have stony ways and thorny paths. Life will not always be easy. There is no way of avoiding pain, and suffering, or watching our loved ones suffer. The cares of life can be much more than annoying on this path called duty, but

"Let us walk this path of duty

With our faces to the sun.

Carry all our burdens gladly,

Finish well what we've begun.

From the river of God 's mercy

That is flowing by the way,

We may drink and find refreshing

For the burdens of the day."

The only way that we are able to walk this path of duty, to carry all of our burdens gladly, to accept what the Lord has given us to do as His best and most perfect will for us, and then we will be able to finish well what we've begun. In order to have the strength to do this, we need to drink from the river of God 's mercy. That includes feeding on His Word, and in prayer, not only speaking to Him, but listening to His voice, so that we have this strength we need.  

A favorite children's chorus based on this same Scripture comes to mind,

"List'ning, list'ning, to the voice of Jesus,

As He speaks to me I will obey.

Walking, walking, ev'ry step with Jesus

Keeps my feet on the narrow way."

Only by listening to His voice and walking every step with Him can we keep in this narrow way that leads to eternal life