Are You on a Dead-End Road?

I read about a psychologist named William Moulton Marston who polled 3,000 people, asking them this: “What have you to live for?”

He was surprised to find that the majority of them—an astonishing 94 percent—were just enduring the present while they waited for the future.

Does that describe your life right now? Are you going about aimlessly, not really sure what your purpose in life is, what your goals are, or where you’re headed? Are you just hoping that things will get better, that things will improve eventually?

That certainly isn’t the way life has to go.

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 NKJV). The life Jesus was speaking of is real life—life with purpose, life with meaning.

But if you want to get to the right place, then you have to get on the right road, so to speak. You have to go the right way.

For instance, here in California if I want to go to the beach, I need to go the right direction. And if I want to go to the mountains, I know there’s a certain way that I need to go. I want to make sure that I’m on the right freeway going the right way.

The same is true of life. We need to ask ourselves whether we’re going the right direction.

God has given us a road to walk on. He has given us a way to live.

In the Old Testament book of Isaiah, He gives us picture that compares our relationship with Him to being on a highway: “And a great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness. Evil-minded people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways; fools will never walk there. . . . Only the redeemed will walk on it” (35:8–9 NLT).

Those of us who live in Southern California spend most of our lives in our cars, trucks, and SUVs, going back and forth on the freeways. There are times, however, when I’ve found myself going the wrong way, and it seems like the next exit is 200 miles away.

There are a lot of people who are going the wrong way on the wrong road in life, and there are others who are driving around with no real direction.

But then something happens that wakes them up. Something reminds them they need to be thinking about where they’re going in life. It might be the death of a friend or a loved one. Death is the point of no return. We don’t get a second chance after death. In fact, the Bible says, “Each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27 NLT).

Five minutes after you die, you’ll have had either your first glimpse of Heaven with all of its euphoria and bliss, or you’ll have had your first experience of genuine, unrelenting horror and regret.

Either way, your future will be irrevocably fixed and eternally unchangeable. That is why you want to make sure today that you’re on the right road, going the right way. And if you’re on the wrong road, it isn’t too late to make a U-turn.

The psalmist wrote, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11 NKJV).

Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13–14 NKJV).

He was saying there’s a clear way to walk in life. Certainly, he wasn’t advocating the fuzzy thinking of our day that says all roads lead to God, that you have your truth and I have mine, and that in the end we all will end up in the same place.

The Bible tells us “there is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death” (Proverbs 14:12 NLT).

So if you’re saying, “I’ll find my own way,” I want to caution you that it can be the way of death. And if you get on the broad way that Jesus warned about and do what everyone else is doing simply because they’re doing it, then you’re going to end up in the wrong place.

There is a road to Heaven. And the way Jesus offers is a narrow road that leads to life. Every day when we get up in the morning, we decide which road we’re going to walk on. We decide how we’re going to live.

Before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, God told them, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV).

Speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16 NKJV).

So we choose whether we’re going to walk on a path of life or on a path of death. We choose whether we’re going to walk in the good way—God’s narrow way that leads to life—or whether we’re going to walk in the wrong way.

So where are you going in life? What are you aiming for?

God’s way to Heaven is well-lit. It isn’t hard to find. In a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, He promises not only to give you life beyond the grave, but also a life on earth that is full, rich, and worth living.

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Learn more about Pastor Greg Laurie.

This article was originally published at WND.com.