Do You Find Yourself Lost?

I recently came across a story about a Massachusetts family who became lost in an elaborate corn maze and had to call 911 to be rescued. The corn maze was located on a farm and usually attracts thousands of visitors each season. The family apparently entered the maze shortly before nightfall and panicked as darkness fell. They were worried that the farm had closed so they called 911, an emergency dispatch number, for help. The farmer said staff members had not left the farm when the family called police. They knew there were people in the maze, but did not hear anyone call for help. The husband, wife, and two children, one, a three-week-old baby, were all safely rescued by the local police.

This is not such an uncommon story. Many of us find ourselves lost, as well. But instead of a corn maze, we are lost in life. We become so wrapped up in our daily lives (i.e., work, school, home, etc.) that we soon find ourselves drifting further and further away from God. We, in essence, become lost, or separated from Him in the great Maze of Life.

In Jeremiah 50:6, God tells the children of Judah that they have been like lost sheep. They, like many of us, were led astray by their shepherds. We worship our television sets, cell phones, the internet, food, celebrities, etc. We find ourselves worshipping these things over God himself. These items have become our shepherds, and we find ourselves paying the spiritual price for it. We have allowed these things separate us from Him.

Genesis 3:7-10 illustrates how no one is ever quite the same after sinning with knowledge. Notice Adam and Eve's sin occurs after God had instructed them (Genesis 2:16-17). Nobody had to tell them they had done wrong—they knew! Now they looked at things differently than they had before; a sense of wrong rushed in on them immediately. Just moments before, all had been friendly and joyful. All of nature seemed obedient to their every wish, and life was good.

Suddenly, however, they felt guilt and fear, and it seemed as if every creature in the Garden had witnessed their act and condemned them. Feeling exposed, they sought to hide, illustrating that separation from the purity of God began immediately. The virtue of their innocence began to lose its luster.

Another tragedy resulted from what happened in Genesis 11. All of these people who were scattered over the face of the earth were also separated from the holy line—a family through which God almost exclusively worked, that began with Shem. Actually, the line began after the death of Abel with Seth, the son of
Adam, and came down through Enoch to Noah and from Noah to Shem. From Shem the descent finally produced Abraham. After Babel, the scattered people were, in fact, not only separated from that holy line, but also from God's Word, which this family preserved and passed down. This was another tragic result of their sin!

Psalm 22:1 begins with perhaps the most heart-rending cry in history: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” As Matthew and Mark attest, Jesus Himself spoke these words as He was about to die: "And about the ninth hour [mid-afternoon] Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46; see also Mark 15:34).

Our Savior's cry of abandonment marks His awareness that His Father had indeed turned from Him, being burdened and defiled by all human sin (Isaiah 53:6; II Corinthians. 5:21; Hebrews 2:9). As Isaiah 59:2 informs us, "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." Because He had never been sinful, Jesus had never known separation from the Father, and His feeling of desertion and rejection may have been the deepest cut of all.

Like the family in the corn maze we suddenly find ourselves lost, or separated from God and don't know what to do about it. The separation is not real in the sense of distance. It exists because like the Israelites, we have offended Him through acts of disloyalty in our breaking of His commands. This separation therefore has to be rectified. Thus, He can hear, but He will not hear because His mind is made up. We are giving no indication that, even though we are practicing aspects of His way, we want to be reconciled. Does it not seem logical that, if we really wanted to be reconciled, we would submit to Him? That we would be obedient to Him? That we would come to Him in an attitude of humility, seeking forgiveness?

As with Ephesus, we are looking at a people (us) who have not so much drifted from the doctrines but have changed in the way that they respect and apply them. The book of Hebrews was written to the Hebrew people in the first century who were drifting. Paul's Ephesus letter applies directly to them (Hebrews 2:1). The letter to Ephesus shows that they had let them slip or were in the process of doing so (Hebrews 2:2-3). The Ephesians had become neglectful losing their devotion to this way of life. This is a very stern warning: "I will remove your candlestick." He advises them, "Repent. Go back."

Keep in mind that one cannot go back to something that he did not previously have. This is a key to our separation from God. It will be a major key in re-unifying us-going back to what we had before: repenting, turning, going back. We must never forget that we are involved in a relationship with a real live Being, and He is not just any being but the One that we are to marry.

Would we want to marry someone who could take us or leave us? That is what happened to these people: They had lost their devotion to the relationship. They still had the doctrines, but their devotion was gone. They did not cherish Him anymore. They did not cherish the relationship, even though they had not walked away from the doctrines. Does this sound familiar? So He says, "Turn. Go back."

The power to love was still residing in them, but they would have to stir themselves up and use it. Love is what one does out of consideration for making the relationship better than it had ever been before. They needed to stir up the Spirit within them and return to the same zeal and devotion that they had shown at the beginning of their conversion. I am here to tell you that is exactly what we need to do. The Spirit is still there, as it always has been. We just need to rouse ourselves to action and find our way back home to God. Why not do it today?

Scripture: Leviticus 16:20-22; 2 Samuel 12:9-14; Psalm 22:3; Psalm 69:1-3; Isaiah 1:4; Ezekiel 20:12-13; Ezekiel 34:11-12; Luke 15:1-7; 1 Peter 2:25.

Prayer: Dear Lord, please help me find my way. I long for the light and only see darkness. Dear Lord I humbly ask that you guide me on my journey and be my light when I am lost. Amen

Praise God,

Edie