In Luke 15, Jesus provides a clear picture of how important it is to seek and to attract those who don’t know Him and are, perhaps unknowingly, lost.

But searching and attracting the lost for Christ isn’t always easy. We often have to go outside of our comfort zones, and sometimes, we have to have lots of patience.

Ten years ago, I lost an unpublished book I had written to a computer crash. I entrusted a company to keep a copy, but somehow, they didn’t have one. I checked with my editors and with anyone I had collaborated with, and they didn’t have the book either. Three years after, I kept remembering the book and kept trying to find it in any place I could think of. I finally found a copy of it saved on a disc and stowed in a box in my garage.

In my own experience of losing something valuable, I realized that when we value something, we don’t stop looking until it’s found. This is how Jesus feels about us. God’s heart is to have each one of us near Him, and when we find Him, He enlists us to search for those who are far from Him.

But it doesn’t end when we find them. We have to show those who are far from God that He is worth seeking by making Him attractive to them.

Part of the reason I never stopped looking for my book was because of how much work I put into it. This book had taken four years to write, edit and polish, and I couldn’t accept the fact that all my work was in vain. You can imagine how relieved I was when I found it!

When we engage those who are not believers, we have to show them how much they mean to God and the eternal benefits of knowing Him (see Titus 2:10b). And we have to remember that we, too, would be lost without Jesus. This is common ground that everyone can relate to (see 1 Corinthians 9:22b).

This week, I encourage you to read Luke 15 and to prayerfully consider how you can seek and attract those who are far from Jesus.

In Christ,

Jeff