192 of 365 - Strive for the narrow door

​He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” Luke 13:22-23
 
“Will those who are saved be few?” A question from among the following crowd. Assessing the numbers; assessing the odds.

Jesus flips it back on them, essentially saying, “You wonder if there will be few? What about you?” We are often overly concerned with the business of everyone else without looking within.

Jesus doesn’t answer the question directly, but instead gives some advice on how to be saved: “Strive to enter through the narrow door.”

Strive to enter. Strive implies a great deal of agonizing effort. But it is a striving effort toward the narrow door. A door where our good works for show won’t fit; our accomplishments won’t fit; our appearance on the outside won’t fit; our ancestry won’t fit; our possessions won’t fit.

“For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able,” Jesus continues.
 
Sin and society put many obstacles and detour signs in front of the narrow gate. If we are following the crowd, we might be running with the “many.” We might be on the wrong path. The crowd may be distracting us from the road that leads through the narrow door.
 
It takes an intentional striving effort to go against the cultural masses. God doesn’t share His throne. Partial obedience – partial surrender – isn’t obedience or surrender. We are to love God with our WHOLE heart, our WHOLE mind, our WHOLE soul. Half-hearted isn’t striving.
 
Questions: What do you think entrance to the narrow gate looks like? Why do you think it is narrow? Why does it require striving for? What does this type of striving look like?