The Lost Sheep

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." Matthew 18: 12-14

Despite the title of this blog, I am not writing this to completely focus on "The Lost Sheep." Many times we see people fall away from God and follow their own desires or get confused and search for different answers. As devastating as this is for ourselves and even more so for God, it is important to understand what we as Christians should do during this time. What is our job when a sheep is lost? What are we to be doing while the shepherd is pursuing that "Lost sheep." 

God has made it clear in my own life what we should not do, but just recently has been showing me what my responsibility is as a sister in Christ. Looking at this verse in Matthew it is first good to realize that it is the Shepherd that goes and looks for the sheep. It is not one of the ninety-nine sheep that goes after the lost sheep. Sheep aren't known for being the smartest animals around, and these are what we are compared to. A sheep going after another sheep is only harmful to both. Just like a sheep cannot protect itself against a wolf, we cannot protect ourselves from this world by ourselves. If we cannot protect ourselves how can we protect others. We need a Shepherd. We need a Savior. We need an all powerful, all knowing God to take the lead. If we go after these "Lost Sheep" we are putting ourselves in danger of getting lost as well.

This illustrates the great need we have for God to be our leader, and for us to not live independently from God. We are completely dependent on Him and He is the source of everything we need. Many times we allow pride to enter our hearts and try to "fix" people or bring people back to God, but we need to allow God to work as only He can. We are not, however, to sit back and watch others fall away and live a life that leads to death. 

In Matthew 18: 15-20, it then goes on to describe what we should be doing when a brother sins against you. We are to go to that person in private, if they do not listen then we are to take a couple more people to confront that person, and if they still do not listen we are to tell it to the church and "treat his as you would a pagan or a tax collector." (vs. 17) If anytime, though, he or she listens and decides to turn from their sin we are to rejoice. When we see someone living in sin we should speak to this person in love and with a pure desire to see their relationship with God grow. This also means making sure we too are not living in sin, but living according to God's will. 

Although going to our brothers and sisters in Christ is very important and a commandment, the most important thing we can do is pray for them. While our brothers and sisters are gone, we must have compassion and love for them and desire for them to come back to the Lord. We need to be in prayer for them and understand that only God can work in their hearts.

The story of the Lost son in Luke 15: 11-32, talks about a son who rebels against his father and leaves with his inheritance to live sinfully. To makes a long story short he squanders away his money and after living in poverty for a while realizes he could have a better life at his father's. He decides to go back, and his father rejoices. Just like this father when one of our brothers or sisters comes back to God, we should rejoice along with our Father, God. We should welcome them back with loving arms and be thankful that the "Lost sheep" is now found! 

In all of this it is good to remember how great our God is and that as Christians we should be united in the purpose of serving our Lord and living a life dedicated to Him. The enemy will try and is already working to divide the church. It is so important for us to be on guard and be in prayer for one another, so that we can be one body doing what God has called us to do.

Hannah.