Live and Let LiveSample

10. Keep it Simple

Living as men of God means often doing hard things and making hard choices. Yet, keeping things simple and living the hard way also brings us a life of greater fulfillment.

Easy living makes us easy prey for the enemy. Keeping our options open and finding quick fixes leaves us without purpose and without character. God’s way is often the hard way as well, but it brings a life of fulfillment.

Jesus warned us about the broad way. The way where anything goes and everything is just fun, and just fine. The broad way is easy, easy-going, and leads nowhere. If we must travel across the country on a highway that is 5-miles wide, we will likely get lost quite a few times and eventually even crash and burn. But if we take a specific route, no more than 5 lanes wide, we find momentum and gain traction. Even though our specific road might take us over narrow passes, deep valleys and winding paths, it will still be better than the 5-mile-wide broadway.

In our lives, the narrow way is always the hard way. And the hard way is often also the simplest way. And the simplest way is often the best way to go.

When we are tempted, the simplest way out is the hardest, but the most effective. When we are tested, the simplest way through is likely the hard way, but it will also be the most rewarding.

But thriving on the hard and simple way can only be done when we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Rock of Ages. If our foundation is firmly laid in the truth of His teaching, built upon His unbreakable Word, then we too become unbreakable.

Despite walking the hard way, despite facing the floods, and despite running through the rain, the man whose faith is his foundation does not slip away. The man who stands firm on the simple truth of the Gospel is not swept up by the whole wide world around him. The man who is wise and builds his life on Christ can stay focused. He keeps his traction along his way and does not get side-tracked by distractions.

Be specific. Be intentional. Be focused. Be wise.

Build your life on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ’s Gospel. Take the hard way and keep it simple. Then you will be able to live and let live the way God intended.

Let’s Live and Let Live:

• What distracts you from the simple, often hard, and narrow way Jesus called us to take?
• How can you stay focused and firmly planted on Jesus as your foundation amid all the distractions and difficulties of life?
• How can you simplify and clarify for yourself what it means to live and let live?