Living High on the Narrow Road


The Narrow Road
by Wayne Jacobsen
Living Loved – Winter 2013

I had just spent the weekend in a country home talking with a group of people about living in the Father’s love. Afterwards two of them drove me to the airport nearly two hours away. The questions continued until we were close to the airport. Finally, a twenty-one year-old medical student in the back seat made one of the most insightful observations I’ve ever heard, “You know what I’m beginning to think, Wayne? Maybe the reason this journey seems so difficult is because it is far easier than we dare to believe!”

Read it again. Having written about finding a real relationship with God for 25 years, I get lots of email from frustrated people. Though they’ve read my books and listened to most of my audio they still feel as if they have little or no connection with God. Many feel forsaken, others wonder if he even exists.

The reason this journey seems so difficult is because it is far easier than we dare to believe!

I know it isn’t easy for people to find their way into a loving relationship with the Father. Everything we’ve learned and believed before runs counter to the dynamics of recognizing and resting in his love. However, it isn’t difficult because God makes it complicated, or because it takes a certain skill set or sensitivity, but because we look in the wrong places for how his life takes root in us.

But Jesus knows that too, and is still up to the challenge of engaging us in a fruitful relationship with his Father…. (Read the full article here.)

Thus begins the feature article in our latest Living Loved Newsletter, which has just been posted at the Lifestream website. You can access the entire newsletter here.

The title of this issue is, The Narrow Road, and looks at some often-overlooked Scriptures, especially by those who talk about Father’s love, that help people learn that living in the love of the Father is not the result of one grand commitment, but the fruit of a long series of choices that leans away from the world’s way and listens to the gentle nudges of the Spirit as to how to live differently. It’s not about performance, but a process of shifting the way we think to the narrow road of growing trust in Father’s love and his work in our lives.

And don’t miss our other features as well:

  • Letters from Our Readers
  • Lifestream News, which includes information about the release of our new website, as well as a lot of changes that continue to unfold in this season of Lifestream.
  • And this insightful quote by A.W. Tozer – “We are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found amoung us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.”

    You can read it online, or print your own downloadable version. We hope it inspires your own journey in drawing closer to Jesus and reveling in his life.

    2 thoughts on “Living High on the Narrow Road”

    1. The frustration I have with the churches, with their many words, they have made Jesus irrelevant.

      I agree with your young friend. I have thought for 45 years on how to reduce the ‘gospel’ down to a single sentence. This is as far as I have gotten.

      The message Jesus lived out in front of people is simply that our Perfect Father completely forgives and accepts us despite our hopeless condition. Knowing that one single fact – that the God of the universe, creator of everything – actually accepts us completely in the condition we are right now, is a mountain of responsibility alone. To just start there, keep climbing that mountain, and know that one fact, more and more completely every day, is task enough.

    2. The frustration I have with the churches, with their many words, they have made Jesus irrelevant.

      I agree with your young friend. I have thought for 45 years on how to reduce the ‘gospel’ down to a single sentence. This is as far as I have gotten.

      The message Jesus lived out in front of people is simply that our Perfect Father completely forgives and accepts us despite our hopeless condition. Knowing that one single fact – that the God of the universe, creator of everything – actually accepts us completely in the condition we are right now, is a mountain of responsibility alone. To just start there, keep climbing that mountain, and know that one fact, more and more completely every day, is task enough.

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