Losing Jesus
Luke 2:41–50
The boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it. Luke 2:43
If Mary and Joseph could lose Jesus in a place like Jerusalem, you and I can certainly lose the sense of the presence of Christ wherever we may be. We can find ourselves drifting spiritually, and we can enter into a period where all that seemed rich, wonderful, and glorious fades away, and we even find ourselves wondering if what we had experienced before was real at all.
What is to be done if that has happened? You have to go back to where you lost Jesus. That is what his parents did. They went back to Jerusalem to seek him out. That is where they had seen him last. So that is where they went.
Where is it that you lost the presence of Christ? It may be that you lost him in your prayer life. You once were fervent and faithful in prayer. Yet as the days went by and the pressures of life closed in, those times got shorter, and when you did pray, your mind was not entirely on what you were saying. Eventually it seemed as if Jesus was no longer there. If that is where you lost him, you must go back and reestablish those times of prayer. You must cry out for him.
Perhaps you lost Jesus at the point of some sin. You know that fork in the road where Jesus was going ahead of you in one direction and sin was beckoning from another. You thought you would go down the other fork for awhile and return. But you never did go back. Sin captured you. If that is the case, you must go back to that sin, confess and relinquish it, and then turn again and go in God’s way.
Maybe you have lost Jesus at the point of your study of the Scriptures. You know that it is through the Word of God that Christians grow. It is by Bible study that a Christian resists temptations. But you began to neglect Bible study until now you can hardly remember the last time you sat down and studied the Bible seriously. If so, you need to get back to serious Bible study, search out the mind of God, and when you have found it, conform your life to that teaching.
Let me encourage you as you seek to find the Lord once again. You may have gone a long, long way from Jesus and have lost him for a very long time. However far you have strayed and however long it has been, if you will determine to seek Christ, you will find that he is there to be found. He is not hiding. Moreover, when you find him, you will find him to be the same gracious, loving, merciful, wise, and sovereign Savior he has always been.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.