Learning To Let Go // Love, Hope, & ForgivenessSample

How to Pursue the Lost Ones You Love

This isn’t a burden to carry on your own—your desire for the person you love to know Me. I know you worry—worry that you won’t say what is needed, that you won’t love deeply or powerfully enough so that they’ll find their way to Me. You worry that my presence in you will be ignored.

It hurts, doesn’t it, more than anything. There is a separation between you both. You want to close the gap, have conversations about Me, share your heart in words that are more than what can be spoken. For you know I know you. You know I love you. You know that there is nothing you can do to earn my love, change my love, lessen my love for you. And do you remember, then, that I love your dear one exactly the same way?

It breaks my heart too that they have not yet come home. I hate this separation. I know them, and I miss them. I want to have conversations with them too. I ache to hold them. It is a deep ache, this love for the ones who are lost.

What is worse is that the ones who are lost often don’t know it. So I go out, and I go out, and I never tire of calling, waiting, wooing, inviting, asking, letting them know they are always, always welcome home.

Sometimes the ones we love have known Me, but then something has happened that has made them run away. What we get to do, you and I, is love them: love them with joy—a depth greater than any ocean, wider than any sky. I do not love the ones who are lost more than the ones who are found. Each is my child. Each is my beloved. You know.

When your heart aches from fretting about your loved one not coming back to Me, let Me tell you this: keep asking Me to hold you close, keep asking Me for strength, keep asking Me to come, give you guidance, give you wisdom, give you a shoulder to cry on, a desire to keep believing I am here, I am good, and I am not going away.

My passion for the lost is a storm of hope. The ones who don’t yet know Me, who have chosen to reject Me, are hurting. They are wandering. They are not okay. They are missing love. They are missing peace. They are missing hope, the security of knowing Me.

But do not give up now. Your job is to love with my love, fight with my love, woo with my love, be quiet in my love. I will guide you—teach you when to step forward and when to step back. It is a dance we are doing, you and I. I am not letting you go—for I am holding your heart, destroying your fears, protecting your love for your dear one. For they are my dear one too. 

I’ve got you both.Yes. Keep giving this burden, this pursuit, to Me.

Exercise:

When someone we care about doesn’t know Jesus, we might feel concern, confusion, impatience, fear, downright frustration. We might want the situation to change . . . yesterday. 

We might feel like trying to push a little—to try ourselves to initiate a change. We might want to try to grab for some control—as we become aware of how little control we have.

It's clear from these words we heard that God knows our unease, our ache for the people we care about who don’t know Him. He says it breaks His heart too. But what should we do, practically? What does God want us to do for these people we don’t want to lose?

Well, first, we must look to our King, Jesus, and remember that influence is always more powerful than force—even the most gentle kinds of force. And that a posture of love—of humility and empathy, kindness and patience—is the most powerful thing we have at our disposal. Because it is the Holy Spirit inside us that enables that posture—that enables us to be humble and understanding, kind and patient.

Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul taught about the power of love—and his words are as relevant today. He wrote, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” That’s chapter 2 of Philippians, verses 3 through 8 .

These verses are a great reminder of just how Jesus accomplished everything He accomplished. He didn’t use His power as God himself to force anything. Rather, He emptied Himself of His heavenly powers and relied upon His Father God and Holy Spirit to empower everything He did—just as we must. Our Father God and Holy Spirit empowered Jesus’ humility, his empathy, his kindness—and these characteristics made Him magnetic. These characteristics drew people to Him. These characteristics draw people to anyone who’s willing to possess them. Humility and empathy and kindness and patience are so rare in this culture—and they are enticing, captivating.

And then there’s patience. Paul, again, urged us to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” That’s Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 . We can entrust to God, our Father, all of our fears. We can release, to Him, all of our concerns, confusion, impatience, and frustration. And then we can give Him thanks for these relationships with these people—as they stand right now. We can refuse to let what could be, keep us from being grateful for what is.

But you still might be saying . . . if I don’t do something here, then who will? We hear that. We understand that sentiment. But here’s the simple answer to the question of who: God Almighty, our Everlasting God. The Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. That’s who. 

But how can we be sure that He will do something? How can we be sure He shares our concern? How can we trust that He’s on the case?

Well, let’s look at Jesus’ own words:

“There once was a shepherd with a hundred lambs, but one of his lambs wandered away and was lost. So the shepherd left the ninety-nine lambs out in the open field and searched in the wilderness for that one lost lamb. He didn’t stop until he finally found it. With exuberant joy he raised it up and placed it on his shoulders, carrying it back with cheerful delight! Returning home, he called all his friends and neighbors together and said, ‘Let’s have a party! Come and celebrate with me the return of my lost lamb. It wandered away, but I found it and brought it home.” That’s from Luke chapter 15 .

I invite you to picture this person you care for, the one who doesn’t yet know or love Jesus. And I invite you to read the words again from Holy Spirit again—and let them sink deep into your heart: 

“My passion for my lost is a storm of hope. . .  But do not give up now. Your job is to love with my love, fight with my love, woo with my love, be quiet in my love. I will guide you—teach you when to step forward and when to step back. It is a dance we are doing, you and I. I am not letting you go—for I am holding your heart, destroying your fears, protecting your love for your dear one. For they are my dear one too.

I’ve got you both.Yes. Keep giving this burden, this pursuit, to Me.”

Yes and amen to that!

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I trust You. I love You. Thank You for Your deep and amazing love for me and the ones I love—for Your unrelenting pursuit of all of us. I know you’ll never forget me; I know you’ll never forget the ones I love, either. So, I trust you. I surrender these people (or this person) to you. I entrust everything about them to You. But I do ask that You come for them—in Your way, in Your time. I know You will; I know You are. And I also ask You to help me to love as You love; to be humble as You are humble; to be understanding as You are understanding; to be kind as You are kind; and to be patient just as you are patient.

In your name, Jesus, Amen.

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