Lost and Found

Am I the only one, or have you also noticed how the keys that get lost are just out of sight under a sheet of paper or a hat and scarf? If I set my glasses down for moment, the newspaper or magazine will end up on top of them and I can spend....too much time looking everywhere else but where they are.

We can misplace spiritual things, too, at times. Our faith may temporarily be overlaid by worries or anxieties about the current, or potential, situations; our testimony may get buried beneath current events in sports or politics or financial news. It is natural to get distracted at times, but once we realize it has happened, just turn back around and pick it up, and simply keep going.

God's wonders and marvels occasionally get overlaid by the mundane, as well. We can be caught in the routine of daily cycles and discover that the thrill of hearing His voice is missing from our heart -- all we can hear is the clatter and chatter of things and people around us. We may suddenly catch ourselves hungering for a sight of the Divine beauty in our surroundings as we used to experience it, before we began to be distracted by needs and demands of the daily minutiae.

Our greatest blessings can come when God begins to bring change into our lives. He starts peeling back the layers that have accumulated, and beneath each layer we find something we have misplaced or forgotten about lying right where we left it before the concerns of our day hid it from view. We realize once again that we can count as loss those things we thought we should strive for, if they run the risk of silencing His voice and filming our eyes from the beauty of His visage.

We may resist it at first, but under the reassurance of the loving voice of the Spirit telling us to trust Him and to yield to His direction, we can begin to enjoy the freshness of His joy and the warmth of His love in our hearts again. Let God, by His subtraction, bring the addition of those things that are eternal and of unspeakable value back into our lives to motivate and empower us for our daily walk in the Spirit with our Father God.

Philippians 3:8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.

Lord of the lost, thank You for seeking and find me, and then when I needed it, guiding me to find You. Thank You for the gift of all that I need -- daily strength, faith to overcome, hope for tomorrow, love for those around, grace unbounded and free -- the true riches of eternity and aides to dwelling in Your healing, soothing, calming, reassuring presence.

4O28E56D