The cost

Sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go, keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and cost you more than you ever wanted to pay. (Anonymous)

“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

It's easy to travel the broad road, enjoying the pleasures all along the way. It's the most popular road: lots of people are on it. The real problem is where the road ends. The beginning may not seem 'all that bad', but the end is where we find much regret, sadness, and 'spoiled lives'. Whatever enticed us down that wide road may not ever be worth the challenge we face when we finally realize the destination!

Farther than you ever wanted to go. Can that describe some 'journey' you may have taken in life? It can describe more than one for me! What started out 'small', ended up taking more than a little more from me each time I continue along that pathway into sin's depths. Compromise isn't hard when you heart isn't following close to Jesus. In fact, it becomes easier and easier the further we allow ourselves to drift from him.

Kept way too long. We don't know just how long the journey 'into compromise' may be, but if you have ever taken even a few steps into sin's pull, you know 'working your way back' to where you began is like taking one step forward and falling two steps back. It is almost like quicksand - the more you struggle with the compromise, the more it pulls you in. The truth is that we need to stop struggling, reach up, find his hand waiting, and let him pull us back into the safety of his arms.

Cost isn't a factor when we are starting out, but the more we compromise, the greater the cost. We lose intimacy with Jesus, allowing doubt and fear to replace his peace within, getting deeper and deeper into sin's clutches. The more we compromise, the more our enemy takes from us (or perhaps we give it to him). The cost of sin is great, even though Satan paints the cost of following Jesus as 'greater'. Don't get duped by his lies that the 'cost' is too great to follow Jesus. We haven't fully seen the cost of sin yet! Just sayin!