Focus: Luke 13:24 - KJV
24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
Luke 13:22-29
The word strait connotes a narrow passage of water connecting two seas or two other large areas of water and it is used in reference to a situation characterized by a specified degree of trouble or difficulty. So, a strait gate is one with limited spatial capacity, narrow and cramped. This is why the Lord said many will seek to enter in and shall not be able. They shall not be able because the burden they carry will prevent them from passing given the nature of the gate. But why? Of course, the Kingdom to which the gate leads has no room for certain excesses and baggage. For instance, no liar, whoremonger, murderer and such like has any space therein. Therefore, as they approach the gate, they find themselves unfit to enter. The only way for such to enter is to trim down and jettison all the unwanted baggage they carry. This they can only do by returning now to the cross while they still can. If they delay and the Lord returns, it will be too late.
Are you still stylishly carrying burdens that cannot pass through the strait gate? They only stand to debar from entering in. Waiting for a later time to discard the burden may be dangerous. The Lord is soon to come. Note that His coming may be by the rapture or, before then, by death. Many are dying now almost without a real reason or basis. If they had assumed they will repent soon, that soon had met them in the grave when it is already too late. Please let us do something about that burden now while there is still time. Shed the weight.
SOLUTION: Take a look at yourself in the spiritual mirror of the word of God. Every burden you notice through that mirror, please put away now! Don’t wait until later. Discard it now.
Father, you had none of the things of the prince of this world in you when he came to you; we pray today, like you were free of the burden, help us to cut off every such burden from our lives also from now in the name of Jesus Christ. As we progress in the journey of life, make us fit to enter in through the strait gate in Jesus’ name.