Strong Enough
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”
This passage left me asking the Father, “What does it mean to be strong enough?” So, I did a little digging, and I followed the trail of footnotes into Matthew 7:21, which says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in Heaven.”
When Jesus is talking about being strong, He’s talking about standing strong in doing the will of the Father. He’s talking about being strong enough to choose God - to love God more than the things we want, the things we long for, and the things we’re afraid of. Because…
It takes strength to surrender.
Surrendering to God, choosing God, loving God requires strength. It takes strength to live with conviction. It takes strength to let God’s love be the cornerstone of your life. It takes strength to put His plans ahead of your own, to let Him build your life.
It’s hard to be humble. It’s hard to go through transformation. It’s hard to welcome change. We need strength; we need endurance for that. Following God is not for the faint of heart;
It takes strength to follow God recklessly.
Sisters, do you love Him enough to get back up every time you fall? Do you love Him enough to get up to pray in the morning? Do love Him enough to risk your job, your finances, and your career for the Father’s will? Do you love Him enough to stop kissing your boyfriend when things heat up and to get to confession when you don’t? Do you love Him enough to say the name of Jesus at work?
Do you love Him enough to follow Him with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul - hour after hour, day after day, year after year? Because it takes strength for all of that. And it’s beyond us. We need supernatural assistance.
We need the strength of the Spirit.
On our own, we’re not strong enough. On our own, we’re too little. On our own, we’ll never enter that narrow gate. We need the strength of the Spirit. It’s only through relationship, through intimacy with God, and through intimacy with the Holy Spirit that we can hope to find that gate and enter it well.
God sent Himself when He sent Jesus, and He sends Himself when He sends the Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit - a friend, an advocate, a helper - to live within us (John 14:16-17) because we can’t possibly love the Lord enough on our own. We need the Spirit to be strong enough.
Father,
Thank You for sending Your Spirit to live within us. Thank You for loving us with crazy, reckless love.
Father, please help us to surrender to You. Help us to love you deeply, fully, intensely. Help us love You enough to trust You and be strengthened by You.
Holy Spirit, come. We welcome You in our hearts. Show us how to be strong. Show us how to be holy. Change us into disciples that follow God’s will recklessly. We are here, on this Earth, to follow the will of the Father. Help us to live that way.
We love You. Amen.