I Want a Heart that Desires to Care for the Lost – of which I once was!

“Only the lost can be found,” they said. God found me. We have a bond nothing can break. What about the others? Those still wandering. Heart check --- do I really care?

I can only imagine how people around Jesus reacted, yet it didn’t hinder Him from getting along with ‘tax collectors’.

I want to have a heart as that of Jesus, not in bondage of people’s approval. In my sphere of influence, there are those considered ‘sinners’. Although we all are but like the Pharisees, the society labeled them as ‘immoral’. At work, we have proud adulterers, thief, cheaters, gossipers, women become pregnant before marriage and they call it ‘love’, marijuana user --- name the worst sin you could ever imagine, it surely is present in our office.

I mourn for them, but I have to be honest. Not 100% at a time I want to be with them sharing Jesus. Sometimes I want to flee for several reasons: I fear rejection, I’m too busy with other stuff, lastly and I think the worst is, I don’t want to befriend them, they’re difficult to be with. But I know that’s not what Jesus want.

Back to my ‘busyness’, these parables made me remember the day God found me. I lived my life as if God doesn’t exist, as if it’s mine. I was so full of me, but God took time, like the owner of the coin, He did not stop and searched thoroughly until He found me. And when He did, like the shepherd, He put me on His shoulder.

I need to be concerned with the lost, just like Jesus to me when I was. I must not waste the authority God gave me, focus on what is important to Him – proclaim the Gospel. I will, although I know it’ll be hard, follow Jesus’ footsteps and mirror His ministry. If angels were rejoicing to see a sinner repent, so should I.

Now if I see people inside the church who are legalistic and religion-centered, then I will remind myself of the Parable of the Prodigal Son wherein I am becoming the self-righteous one. With the aid of the Holy Spirit, I’ll serve with gladness, eyes fixed on Jesus, not on people.

A pastor once said, don’t look at the person as who he is now. Look at him as who he’ll become as God enters his life. Same goes for myself. I want to see ‘me’ as who I’ll become as God sanctifies me.

There’s still a lot I want to say, but I’ll end with this – prayer. It is the first, the last and constant action I’d do. Prayer is powerful, it can move mountains. God has proven it to me multiple times. Prayer can turn a happy sinner into a repentant sinner; makes a ‘prodigal son’ come home; exposes the pride of the self-righteous to themselves even if I don’t say a word. Prayer gives me a heart that desires to care for the lost – of which I once was.