Jesus Said, "Enter ye (Strive to enter) in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat."

People striving to enter into The Straight Gate and the Narrow Way!

A Devotional for Friday May 15, 2026

The Sixth Day of the Week

From the pen of John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress

But Why Should We Strive?

Answer[s]—

1. Because the thing for which you are here exhorted to strive, it is worth striving for. It is for not less than for a whole heaven, and an eternity of felicity there. How will men that have before them a little honor, a little profit, a little pleasure, strive? I say again, how will they strive for this? Now they do it for a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. For what is there again either in heaven or earth like them to provoke a man to strive?

2. Strive, because otherwise the devil and hell will assuredly have thee. He goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). These fallen angels, they are always watchful, diligent, unwearied. They are also mighty, subtle, and malicious, seeking nothing more than the damnation of your soul. O thou that art like the artless dove, strive!

3. Strive, because every lust strives and wars against your soul. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit” (Galatians 5: 17). “Dearly beloved, I beseech you,” said Peter, “as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2: 11). It is a rare thing to see or find out a Christian that indeed can bridle his lusts.

4. Strive, because you have a whole world against you. The world hates you if you are a Christian. The men of the world hate you; the things of the world are snares for you, even thy bed and table, thy wife and husband. Yes, even your most lawful enjoyments have that in them that will certainly sink your soul to hell, if thou dost not strive against the snares that are in them (Romans 11: 9).