We can start so well, knowing where we are going and what direction to take. We have direction and purpose and know in our hearts that God is with us. But then life happens, and we can lose our way. We get blind sided, distracted or led astray by our own desires, or the influences of others who aren’t on the same path as we are. If we are not careful we can find ourselves completely off track, and trying desparately to find our way back to where we are meant to be. For some that is only for a short detour, and for others it can sadly end up being years before they find their way back to where God wanted them to be in the first place.
I remember a time when I had had to find my way back to Jesus. From a very young age I knew Jesus and how much He loved me. At age seven I was preaching to all the other children on the school bus that Jesus was coming back and they had better make sure they were ready when he arrived. I’d look our the window each night searching the sky to see if I could see Him coming with His angels to take us all to heaven. I would sit up on the hill behind our house talking and communing with Him for hours.
But then stuff happened. My parents went bankrupt and we lost the family farm that I had grown up on which meant moving into town, which I struggled to adjust to. Then at fifteen our family moved to Australi, and a year later my parents separated. To add to all that some health issues I had battled with for several years worsened. At this time I started dating a young guy who had been attending the youth at the church I had started going to. He didn’t love or know Jesus the same as I did , but he was a welcome respite from the rest of my life, and I told myself it was okay to hang around with him and his friends. Within a year the closeness I had always experienced with Jesus seemed a distant memory. My health was suffering, and I wasn’t sure what I was meant to be doing with my life now that I had finished school. I had lost my way, and didn’t know which direction to take next.
And that’s when I realised I needed to find my way back to Jesus. Events and a move to a new city transpired, and the friends I had surrounded my life with were suddenly no longer part of my world. I started to attend a church where I was living, and began taking the steps to find my way back to Jesus. Within a few months my life was radically transformed. I had reconnected with Jesus and was filled with the Holy Spirit’s power, and wonderfully healed from the inside out. It was also in that time that I met the man who was to become my husband. I’d heard Jesus calling my name again and I had found my way back to Him so that He could place me back on the path He had planned for me all along.
Today, if you feel like you have lost your way, or you don’t know which direction to go next, I want to encourage you that Jesus is calling and He knows the way. He always helps us find our way back to Him, (or to Him in the first place.) It’s so easy to get distracted, or led up the wrong path, but no matter where or what you have been doing, or where you have missed an opportunity to follow Him, Jesus has the way back. If you listen, you will hear Him calling, and all you have to do is be brave enough to follow. I’ve discovered if you look for those who know Jesus already it makes the right path easier to find, plus you can ask them to help and pray for you.
Don’t waste another day being lost, especially when you know deep down in your heart that you’ve taken a wrong turn. Look to Jesus and He will show you the way home.
“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13)
“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls, says the Lord”. (Jeremiah 6:16)
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you”. (Psalm 32:8)
Prayer: Jesus thank you that I can never get so lost that you can’t find me. Help me to be brave enough to admit that I have lost my way and that I need to stop and get directions. Please lead and guide me as I can find my way back to you. In Jesus Name Amen.
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