Matthew 7:13-14(NIV)
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Narrow. It can be a good thing or a bad thing. Good when talking about your waist line and bad when talking about your mind. Good when talking about the way to Jesus and bad when talking about attitude.
I remember an old saying that say's, "Your mind is so narrow you can see through a key hole", which is pretty narrow! Meaning that a person isn't willing to think outside their own box, or willing to be open to others opinions only their own. Not a good way to live or make or keep friends in my opinion.
In church circles we like to throw around titles like "Liberal" or "Conservative" or "progressive" or "legalstic", and I don't like labels and don't think God does either. Those labels are man made and not always accurate.
A narrow-mind is never a good thing, because you are limiting yourself and isolating yourself from common sense, reality, or even actual truth, whether it's in christian circles, politics, careers, even relationships.
God gave us a pretty big mind and the freedom to use it and exercise it, why we limit it I'll never understand? We get hung up on things that don't matter and make them matter. We get focused in on our own opinions and try and make them everyone's. We can manipulate the Bible or other's words to make them say or mean what we want so they agree with us. Which is not healthy or right.
When it comes to God, we need to take Him and His word and mold ourselves around Him, not vice versa. When it comes to others, we need to learn to agree to disagree, be big enough to accept the fact that sometimes we are wrong, don't know, or someone else knows more than us. We need to open up our minds and realize we don't have all the answers and we can't always be right.
When I talk about moving from a narrow-mind to being more open-minded, please use common sense. I am not talking about anything goes, accept and agree with everyone, and not have your own opinions, but we need to stop living in fear or dominating and trying to control others who don't agree with us because we are insecure. We put God in a box and make being a christian so difficult that it becomes a list of do's and don't instead of an actual relationship.
We can also be so narrow-minded when it comes to politics, our area of expertise, our intersts, etc...that we make it hard for people to want to talk to us or be around us.
My advice? Take a chill pill. Loosen up. Stop making your mind, your life, your opinions, and your thinking so small and narrow, that's a small place to live when we have to control or worry about every little thing.
Following God is serious business. His Word is no joke, but sometimes we make things so complicated when we care more about keeping our opinions, our traditions, our ways, or things so narrow, that being a christian becomes so rigid and narrow, that it becomes an obligation and not a relationship, like Jesus intended it to be. The way to Jesus is narrow, only through Him, however the methods people worship Him, relate to Him, and serve Him are not to be narrow or rigid. Jesus gives us freedom and freed us from slavery and a narrow-mind is a form of slavery. The way is narrow, He didn't mean our minds.
Whether it's your faith, relationships, hobbies, politics, or whatever, learn to open your mind God gave you and think with common sense, truth, and being realistic.
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