Introduction

The pandemic has revealed the shallowness of faith of many people. Consequently, many have either become lukewarm or have backslidden altogether. Now that the health situation is beginning to allow people to go back to their previous activities, although under the new normal (i.e. with the virus still being present but less threatening), we need to ask, “What are we going back to?” Or, better yet, “Who do we need to go back to?” In other words, we need to go back to Jesus and follow Him closely again together with others. We are not simply going back to face-to-face gatherings, we must go back to Jesus!

Three Steps To “Lostness”

1. We forget that life is about relationships (Luke 15:11-12). Our “lostness” begins when we forget that life is all about relationships. We forget our relationship with God, then we forget our relationship with God’s people. For whatever reason, we begin to justify why we choose to forget. Once we decide that our relationship with our heavenly Father is no longer that important, we will soon conclude that our relationship with God’s people is also not that important. So, we start to get lost.
2. We think that life is about being happy (Luke 15:13-16). When our relationship with God and God’s people is no longer that vital to us, we would begin feeling empty. Soon, we would look for something or someone that can make us happy. We will look everywhere. Every time we find something or someone, they disappoint us. We feel betrayed or let down. Our hearts grow restless as time goes by. More and more, the world becomes an empty place with nothing or no one to make us happy.
3. We assume that life is about externals only (Luke 15:17-20). God would allow us to feel the desolation caused by our lostness. Our feelings of sadness and longing will become His sacred call for us to go back to Him. But often we would come up with our own solutions. We would still try to control our lives as much as we can, thinking that we can solve our problems if we can only change our external situation. We may even try to go back to God and His people based on our agenda and/or conditions. We’re still thinking in terms of external needs, not internal realities.

Conclusion

1. Main Idea: “Getting lost is natural but the solution is always internal.”
2. We cannot go back to Jesus unless we’re willing to look into our hearts.
3. Spend time in solitude and silence to examine your heart together with Jesus.

Discussion

1. Which of the three steps have you experienced already?
2. Why are we prone to experience those three steps?
3. How can we avoid experiencing those three steps?