Detour Via Broad Road
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
Satan is the father of lies and he is always putting detour signs on the narrow road to life. He wants us to believe the narrow road is closed and impossible to pass. He offers an easy detour with a lie promising us successful travel. He knows we are always looking for what we think is the easiest and quickest way to a fleshly, pleasurable road.
It is our worldly nature to seek the easiest path in order to achieve our goals. Satan’s lies promise us a detour to instant satisfaction. This satisfaction comes from a self-centered mind that seeks only to gratify the flesh. Satan’s goal is to detour us from the narrow road, convincing us that we can be our own gods and have a better life. He wants us to stop listening to the Holy Spirit and to be guided by our fleshly desires into eternal destruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3) Satan will entice us to listen to what our itching ears desire and detour us off the narrow road. If we are not on the narrow road to life, then we are on the broad road to destruction.
Satan is always trying to get us off the narrow road, which means we have to be alert and not fall prey to his detours. The narrow road is a perfect road for imperfect drivers. It has high guard rails to keep us centered. When Satan attacks we go to the Holy Spirit for guidance and run through the false detour. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13) God promises that we can endure it. We don’t take the detour even though it seems easier, shorter, and deceptively more beautiful. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14) Satan has many people on the broad road. He uses many of them to try and entice us off the narrow road. He detours us very gently using little temptations that we can justify and convince ourselves that we are pleasing to God.
Today, don’t let anything or anyone detour you off the narrow road. You may find yourself bouncing off the guard rails but never believe Satan’s temptations for that easy detour. The detour always leads us to eternal death and torment. You have the power through the Holy Spirit to stay on the narrow road and swerve around all of Satan’s detours.
Let’s Pray: Lord, keep me on the narrow road to life that I may never fall prey to any of Satan’s detours. Let every sinful temptation remind me of Satan’s lies. May I be reminded that his goal is to pull me off the narrow road that I might start traveling down the broad road to destruction. Lord, let the Holy Spirit drive my heart and overcome my fleshly desires to detour. In Jesus’ name, Amen.