SCRIPTURE:
““Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Luke 15:4-7
OBSERVATION:
Have you ever felt like you’re far from God? Like you’ve made too many mistakes for Him to forgive you or that you’re too far gone for Him to love you? Perhaps there’s a part of you that even feels that way right now. If so, God might actually be closer than you think.
In the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus talks about a shepherd who cares for 100 sheep. When that one sheep gets lost, you might think that the shepherd would just count his losses and lose that sheep. After all, it’s only one sheep—he still has 99, right? Wrong. That one sheep, even though it went astray due to its own wrongdoing, was so valuable to that shepherd that he leaves the 99 to go chasing after the one. The mistakes of the one didn’t push it away from the shepherd; it caused the shepherd to draw even closer to it.
APPLICATION:
The same is true for you. God is the Good Shepherd and you are His sheep. If you’re feeling far from Him, He’s closer than you think. Your mistakes, failures, and shortcomings don’t push you away from Him; it actually draws you closer to Him—for it’s in our failures that He comes chasing after us, and it’s through His forgiveness that we truly come to understand His love.
How do I know? Because that was my story. Growing up, I believed in God, but it wasn’t until I messed up and betrayed God that I realized how much He loved me. For it was when I sinned against God—getting drunk beyond comprehension, looking at images I shouldn’t have, and loving myself at the expense of loving Him and those He placed around me—that I finally realized how much I didn’t deserve His love. And yet, even though I didn’t deserve it, He still loved me. Despite answering His blessing by cursing Him, despite betraying Him like Judas, and despite running away from Him myself, He didn’t retract His love from me; He extended it. He came chasing after me. And when I finally came to my senses to stop running, there He was right behind me, with arms wide open. All I had to do was turn around. And that’s how great His love for you is—that even though you don’t deserve it, He still loves you.
You’re never too far gone for God’s love. Your mistakes might make you feel like you’re far from God, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. For just like that sheep who went astray, your mistakes didn’t push you away from God; it drew Him closer to you. All you need to do is turn around to realize that He’s been chasing after you this whole time.
If you’re reading this, God wants to remind you that He’s with you, He loves you, and there’s nothing you could do to make Him stop loving you. If He left the 99 to come chasing after you once, He’ll continue to do so again and again and again until you finally come to realize how great His love for you truly is.
Stop running away from Him; run toward Him. And when you do, come to realize how much He truly loves you—for even though you don’t deserve His love, He still freely gives it to you.
PRAYER:
God,
How great Your love is for me. Thank You for loving me unconditionally and for continuing to love me despite my mistakes. I repent from my ways, and I turn to You. Thank You for chasing after me, even when I run away, for forgiving me, even when I make the same mistakes, and for loving me, even though I don’t deserve it. It’s in my shortcomings that I have finally come to understand how endless Your love is for me. So today, Lord, I want to say that I love You. I give You my heart, I give You my soul, and I worship You with all that I am. Thank You for being my Good Shepherd.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
