Straying

HEART PREP

Pray and ask God to open up your heart to Him.
Ask Him to help you hear Him clearly today.

Matthew 18:12-14 “What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has
gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for
the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you,
he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.
So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.”

Straying is an easy thing to do. This world makes it SO easy to stray away from the Lord. It’s natural for us to stray, because we are sinners by nature. Following God is super-natural. You probably never would have guessed that ‘supernatural’ could be used in describing a Christian’s relationship with the Lord. It’s supernatural because it is not normal. It’s not natural. Our sinful flesh can get in our way when we’re trying to follow the Lord. “All of us like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6). In the parable in our Scripture, God is the One who has the hundred sheep. He is the Shepherd, and we are His sheep. One of His sheep (one of His people) has gone astray, and He leaves the ninety-nine sheep and goes to search for that one who strayed. It’s not God’s will for anybody to perish (2 Peter 3:9). He loves you. He created you in your mother’s womb for a purpose (Jeremiah 1:5). You’re not an accident, or unwanted. God wanted you in this world, so He brought you into it. He cares about His sheep, even the ones that stray.

You might be a Christian that has been straying for a long time, or you might be a Christian who just started straying away from God. Regardless, He is searching for you. And if you’re not a Christian, He is waiting for you to come to Him. He has made it possible through Jesus for you to be welcomed into His family and for your sins to be forgiven, but you have to accept His invitation to come. It will amazingly change your life. You’ll have a new life.  When He goes and searches for you and finds you, He rejoices like crazy over you. He’s so happy to have you back, or just to have you in the first place (Luke 15:7).

Life Application

What is God saying to me today?

Think about your life and your heart and your relationship with the Lord. Have you been straying away just like the sheep in the parable above?

God sees you and wants you back. Return to Him and enjoy His company.

If you are not one of His sheep, go to Him today for forgiveness and eternal life.