The Wicket Gate - Blessed and Very Much So

"SO after a while Christian arrived at the Wicket-gate. Now over the
gate there was written a sign, 'Knock and it shall be opened unto you.'
Therefore he knocked more than once or twice while saying:
May I now enter here? Will he within
Open to sorry me, though I have been
An undeserving rebel? Then shall I
Not fail to sing his lasting praise on high."
John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress


Christian has finally arrived at the wicket gate. He has gotten here by having a burden placed on his back, a burden that all others that he knew didn't have. He was direct this way by Evangelist. He fell during the way, but was lifted up by Help. He made a detour, but was redirected by Evangelist. He would not have been here, but if it wasn't that he was directed to. Now he is in front of the gate, the entrance, the way. He is in front of Christ. He has been directed by Christ to Christ! What marvelous grace this is!


Proverbs 3:6 says, "Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."What God makes sure to do is He places within us the desire to seek His will, His way. Without this we would seek our own ways. Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:44 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. I Peter 2:9


If you have had that burden of sin placed on your back, due to an overwhelming conviction of your own personal sin, a sin so horrible in makes you puke to think how disgusting it is, then you have been truly blessed!


If you have been so burdened by that sin that no one could talk you out of pursuing a way to remove that sin, even though you knew it meant dying to the person that you are and being transformed into the image of Christ, then you have been truly blessed!


If when you were burdened by your sin and you were tempted to seek an easier way to remove it by a member of a gospel other than Christ's and Holy Spirit revealed it to you as folly, then you have been truly blessed!


If you have been convicted by Christ of your sin, called by Christ to seek to be forgiven for that sin, shown the way by Christ to Christ, and protected along the way to Christ, then you are truly blessed!