Luke 13:24 Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

Sounds like I need to lose some weight.

Luke 11:46 And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Matthew 23:13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Who has put on you a burden that is not yours to carry? Who told you that you will never be good enough? Who has ridiculed you and judged you unworthy? Who has shamed you?

There is a prayer for you.

Psalm 40:14 Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt!

He is faithful to those who have placed their trust in Him.

Psalm 55:22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Do that. Trust in the Lord, unburden yourselves and enter by the narrow gate.

Here at the beginning of this New Year, refrain from making resolutions you know in your heart you will never keep and seek the promises of God in Christ Jesus who is faithful and true to keep those promises.

Luke 11:9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Why did God the Father drive Saul in such a manner that he became a persecutor of His Son?

The Father knew His Son would take over driving with a new yoke, a new covenant that replaced the old. Saul was in a unique situation that served the will of God the Father but not the Son.

Saul knew the law far better than most rabbis. He studied under Gamaliel. He was perfect under the law. When Jesus took over the driving, He placed a new yoke upon  Saul and as soon as Saul chose to act in a manner that did not suit the new yoke, he felt the whip of his new driver.

Acts 17:1-4 English Standard Version

17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

Who better to reason with the religious leaders than someone who knew the law better than they did? But how did Paul know all this? He listened and obeyed His driver.

Luke 24:25-27 English Standard Version

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

If Jesus did that for two men on the road to Emmaus, surely He would do that for Saul on the road to Damascus. Those discussions could have lasted three years until Saul, becoming Paul, was prepared to join the missionary field according to Galatians 1:18. Nor do I find this a coincidence; 2 Samuel 21:1 And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” That lasted for three years.

Perhaps and I say this from a place of my own guilty conscience, perhaps it took Paul three years to forgive himself for what he had done. That is my thought, not doctrine.