I sought him, but found him not. Song of Solomon 3:1 ESV
Tell me where you lost the company of Christ, and I will tell you the most likely place to find Him. Have you lost Christ in the closet by forgetting to pray? It is there you must seek and find Him. Did you lose Christ by sinning? You will find Him in no other way but BY giving up that sin, and seeking by the Holy Spirit to kill that part of you where lust lives. Did you lose Christ by neglecting the Scriptures? Then you must find Christ in the Scriptures. The proverb is true: “Look for a thing where you dropped it; it is there.” So look for Christ where you lost Him—He has not gone away. But it is hard work to go back for Christ. John Bunyan’s pilgrim found the section of the road back to the arbor of ease, where he lost his scroll, the hardest he had ever traveled. Twenty miles forward is easier than one mile back for something we’ve lost. Take care, then—when you find your Master, cling to Him. But how is it that you lost Jesus? One would think you would never part with such a precious friend, whose presence is so sweet, whose words are so comforting, whose company is so dear! How is it that you did not watch every moment for fear of losing sight of Him? Yet, even now that you have let Him go, what a mercy it is that you seek Him—though you groan, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him!” Go on seeking; it is dangerous to be without your Lord. Without Christ you are like a sheep without its shepherd; a tree without water at its roots; a dried-up leaf in a storm, not connected to your tree of life. With your whole heart seek Jesus, and He will be found. Give yourself completely to the search, and you will certainly, to your joy and gladness, discover Him again. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
It's a running joke around our home and with a few whom we know. When we lose something we make a joke about looking where we last saw it. It's always in thr last place we look because once we find it, we stop looking.
We often wonder at our life. At the predicament that we are in. How did it get this way? How did I not see this coming?
Or worse, why did God let me get hurt like this!?!
My dear reader, the real answer, versus any reasonable answer we give is where we are with Jesus. The sheep are only lost on a hill apart from the Great Shepherd because they wandered off or lost sight of Him. Sheep do not get lost any other way. A wild animal can only change where a sheep is, is if it gets between the sheep and its Shepherd.
Thus we have the story from Jesus on leaving the 99 to go find the 1.
The Disciples had deep training in their time with Jesus. The proof of the Father's Plan was the reports that they brought back to Jesus. Yet look at their reports. In some great ways even they missed the point. Great results but they still missed it. How can that be said? Look at their actions at His betrayal, His crucifixion, His Resurrection. The power of God was with them when they were sent out and in those moments they forgot.
So do we.
By now a great many of you have heard the joke about the attention span of a dog. He or she is wagging the tail all happy and attentive. Watching your every move. Then a squirrel goes by and poof, all the training in the world is gone along with the dog.
We are the same way. We get to a point in our walk and think it's ok to coast. Then we are paying attention to all that's around us and the next thing we know Jesus is somewhere else.
Then we wonder what to do. We began making poor decisions and they don't work. We don't turn around, we try to figure things out, things get worse. Then we cry out to God. "Where are you?" "Why did you leave me?"
Truth is He didn't move. His path for us hasn't changed. Our lives are beyond immersed in 'squirrel' distractions. We have so many that we jump from one joyous thing to another. Not realizing the imminent danger of being pulled from where our Shepherd is.
If life isn't going the way you hoped. Go back to where you last was with Jesus.
How did Peter get saved from sinking in the water? He returned his eyes and attention to Jesus.
How do men and women get trained in the military? They have every single distraction driven, removed, from their minds. They are trained to obey the orders of 1. They have it drilled into them to follow the Shepherd.
We don't take the distractions of this world seriously. Temptation, lust, thievery, anger and hatred are beyond sugar coated by circumstances. We think are taught to hate in regards to a team but not a person. It's still hatred. We are taught it's ok to speed because police with no lights on doing it must make it ok since they do it. It's still speeding. We collect a ton of things around a movie, movie character or team and call it being a fan. The Bible calls it idolatry. Proof? Well, take any somewhat serious fan of a sports team and disagree with them about that team. You will see zealousness come out. A fervor for that team. Yet you see quite the opposite in those same people in Church. No zeal for Christ at all like they have for 'their' team. They even wear their idols symbols to Church. I see fans of movies know a million pieces of useless information about a movie or character but can't tell you 5 verses from the Bible.
Then they have trouble in life and wonder where God is. Jesus said you cannot serve two masters. You cannot have two Shepherds. You cannot live for both. While you are away from Jesus you have problems both small and great. Only then do you cry out for Him.
Here's your truth for today.
If you hadn't left His side, hadn't taken your eyes off Him, you wouldn't wouldn't be crying out to Him to come and save you. You wou already be where He was.
What began as something difficult for me is gradually gaining momentum. The letting go. Removing distractions. Putting on blinders. Did you know that the reason for blinders on a horse or donkey was for the exact same 'squirrel!' reason? They couldn't go in a straight line without help.
We can't stay with Him without help.
Peter got his attention back on Christ when he went back to listening to Christ.
I challenge all of you, look at where your attention is drawn to. Where do you need blinders? If you're feeling lost and wonder where Jesus is, follow what Spurgeon said. Go back to where you were last with Jesus and you will find Him.
It's in many places in Scripture where it says to remove your idols from your midst. Anytime God has to repeat Himself it's all that much more important!
Look at your life. You may not understand how you got so lost and alone, but you know the way back. Jesus is the Way.
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