The parable of the wandering sheep

Hi friends,

Today I grabbed my Bible for the first time in at least 4 months. I started this blog in confidence that I would read the Bible in a year, yet I fell away. Although I am still active in church activities and in my prayer life, something just stopped me from grabbing my Bible again. Missing one day of reading lead to missing several days, which led to missing months of reading the Bible and spending time with God. Even though I stopped, I still had my bookmarks at Exodus and Matthew, where I stopped, to continue when God would bring me back on track.

Today I read Matthew 17 and 18, and in Matthew 18 I loved the parable of the wandering sheep. As I was reading this I felt like this parable was referring to me and I really wanted to share this parable with you.

You can find the parable in Matthew 18:12-14

 “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? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

To me, this parable is telling me that God is very protective. He goes out of His way to find us when we lose track and He makes sure we return to Him safely. I felt like these months I was actually slipping away that God did a lot of effort to call me back to reading the Bible again.
I always listen to this song by Anthony Evans - Something Beautiful . It says: 'I try to run away but
you keep pursuing me. I try hiding but you keep uncovering', which to me implies to me that God really cares for us and doesn't want to let go of us. For these past couple of months I have even been telling myself that I am a Christian for a reason. God chose me and I am very lucky that I know Jesus. For me it would be impossible to turn my ways away from God.

This scripture reminds me of what Jesus said: 'It's not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not called the righteous, but sinners'.
If you good, you good. God worries about those who are lost and are wandering off, so he can bring them back and bring them under His protection, because those that are wandering off are more likely to get attacked by the wolf, in this case the devil.

God Bless,

Beatrice