FaithICS+MCA


 * Matthew 18:12-14 **

Jesus said to his disciples: “What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” 
 * Summary**

This passage is telling us that Jesus was explaining to his disciples that God is the man and we are the sheep. He doesn't want any of us to be lost, so he's willing to risk the 99 to find 1. When he found us he was more joyful for us than he was for the other ones that were never lost, because we came back to him. And it is not God's will that we don't follow his path and be lost, it's just that some times we don't have enough faith in him.


 * Reflection**

Jesus is trying to teach us that we need to have faith in God, even when bad things happen, like the lost of a loved one. We have to believe that God loves everything and every one of us, and he will find us when we loose our faith in him. He is joyful because even though we were lost we came back to him. He found you and me and he never gave up. Now he looks at us and want us to find the other lost ones and help them find God. We are all worthy to be found, wherever we are or whatever we are doing.

We need to live out the teaching of this Gospel because God loves us. He is willing to risk 99 just to find 1. Since God found all of us, we need to know how to help others find him too. We can do this easily. We can live this teaching by thanking God for finding us. We can also not give up on people when they need help and nobody else is willing to help them. We need to be like the man who helped the sheep even though all the others were saved.


 * Prayer**

Dear God, we are deeply thankful that you came to find us when we were lost. Now we want to help find the other ones. Lead us to the lost ones you want back in our family, and give us the eyes to see them when they cross our path. Please give me the courage to act in the best ways to bring that lost person home, and never give up on them, like you never gave up on us. Amen.