Have You Lost Something That Needs To Be Found?
Good Morning Friends,
Today’s parable is about lost things, but is also true about people who are spiritually lost. Here we might just discover we are meant to respond to them in a way that honors Jesus. Here we find that it is best to respond to people who are lost with the same or greater effort that we would exert as if searching for things of personal value. Here we are to share that God is actually searching for them too so they might come home. In engaging the lost, we too are changed when we consider them because we are working in tandem with God. In seeking the lost we discover something rather amazing. Have You Lost Something That Needs To Be Found?
Scripture: Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Luke 15:1-10 (NRSV)
Message: The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were indifferent to the lost and even antagonistic toward them. In today’s parables Jesus teaches them and us how wrong it is to reject those who are not part of the family of God. The one thing that matters most to God is the lost. They matter so much to God that heaven throws a party when even one person comes home. We should be willing to demonstrate our concurrence with Christ. We should be willing to seek and find a lost passion in ourselves for lost people. We need to admit that even Christians lose our way and are in need of a Savior to seek us, find us and restore us so we might then respond to our Savior as Lord. Friends, following Jesus requires a total commitment that includes a responsibility for reaching the lost. It is in this way we experience love…it is in this way we experience God. It is in this way that our identity as Christians is restored.
Pray we have compassion for the lost for we too have been lost. Pray we put forth the effort needed to reach the lost in all walks of our lives so we might be found. Pray we be persistent in the quest. Pray we truly believe that people who are spiritually lost are too valuable to give up on. Pray we repent when our compassion, effort and persistence wanes. Pray we never get disconnected. Pray we never lose our identity. Pray we experience the joy of finding the lost. Pray we let God get His hands on us and bring us home.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 