I Appeal to You
... through Bertha Dudde  - 19.09.1955 

6359   The narrow and the broad path ....

The path you travel on earth can be glorious, comfortable and full of joy .... but also laborious and difficult for you, and as a rule you choose the easy, even path and enjoy all the joys and pleasures this path offers to you .... You shrink back from the laborious narrow path and don’t ask where the path you are taking will lead you. You are satisfied for the moment with being able to relish the luxuries promised to you by the broad path but fail to consider where it will lead to. Yet time and again narrow paths branch off from it and at these junctions there are always messengers who call you and advise you to take these paths, even though they are not even but require you to climb upwards, on account of which must exert strength in order to accomplish the ascent .... However, the messengers also promise you a glorious goal, they assure you that you will not go through the laboriousness of the path in vain, that the goal will richly reward you for all hardship and sacrifices demanded of you by the narrow path. Time and again you will have the opportunity to leave the wide road for you will repeatedly meet these messengers who caution you not to continue your path and who try to entice you onto the path leading uphill. You ought to pay attention to them, you must seriously consider that you are in danger if you continue to steadfastly follow the path which can never lead upwards, because it does not require any effort of you if it is seemingly even but steadily leads downwards.

You should become suspicious yourselves if your earthly life always results in the fulfilment of your desires, for you ought to admit that you only ever desire and grant yourselves worldly pleasures .... pleasures which fade away like figments of dreams of which nothing of value remains, instead they are more likely to leave you with a stale and uneasy feeling if you take serious stock of yourselves .... The road you are taking is indeed lined with richly flowering hedges and you feel comfortable in this environment but it is nothing real, they are just deceptions and disguises which intend to cover what lies behind, and you would be horrified were you able to see through it and discover the mire these flowering hedges are intended to hide. Upwards leading paths, however, necessitate the surmounting of unevenness, it is not easy to cover such paths yet at the top a glorious goal beckons the traveller, the light he sees shining above himself permeates him incomparably pleasantly and lets him forget all hardship .... And the traveller knows that it is not a deceptive light, he knows that his true home is waiting for him and will then offer him all glories. And he will gladly and joyfully cover the arduous path, he will pay no attention to the difficulties, for he constantly receives strength from above and will therefore also safely reach his goal .... He will return into the Father’s house in order to be and forever remain happy ....

Amen