LOST

I sometimes look into their eyes and wonder what lies inside their head. Is the fact that virtually no one smiles a sign of emptiness? Or are they simply tired from a long day? Driving down Hwy 99W it isn’t hard to see faces of drivers traveling in the other direction because with all the traffic lights, no one moves very fast.

Meditation

Matthew 9:36-38—When He saw the crowds He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”

In less than two hours I will be on a plane headed towards India. I know I will see crowds, and by God’s grace I will have compassion. It is much easier in some ways to care for people far away. We are jolted out of our comfortable settings and brought face to face with those whose desperate circumstances make obvious their critical need for a Savior. I will see a nation whose numbers are huge and it won’t be hard to agree with Jesus that there are not enough workers.

But right now it is 99W that I see; it is people around me that I can’t help but wonder if they know Jesus. How easy it is to go through each day and not make the effort to share the life-savings news that Jesus offers. How quickly I forget to pray for the souls of those nearby. In familiar surroundings, the reality of lostness is easily forgotten.

Will you join me in asking the Lord to give us a heart for the lost? Will you stop for a moment and consider how it is possible to hold eternal life and not share it! There’s something brutally wrong about ignoring those who daily reject Jesus. How many have never made Him Lord because no one ever shared His offer, His sacrifice, and His victory over sin?

The Holy Spirit can work through you to be the one who shares the gospel. Will you let Him?

Inspiration

We quote our Lord’s statement that “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) and misinterpret His meaning by limiting the lost to those who are lost in our eyes.—Oswald Chambers in The Servant as His Lord