Straying or Coming Back?


For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 
1 Peter 2:25

When I was in Ludhiana I had to travel many times to Jammu. On the way we could see many sheep being led by shepherds. It was a wonderful sight to watch. Sometimes I would stop to just see the shepherd leading them. Sometimes the sheep are about 500 in number. Hearing the voice of horn or vehicles the sheep sometimes get scattered. But as soon as the shepherd raises his stick and shouts they all run back to the same direction and field where they are supposed to be.  

The Bible repeatedly says that we as mankind are just like sheep. Sheep tend to go astray, even when they know they shouldn’t, and we as God’s sheep do the same thing too.Like sheep, we “stray” away from our “Shepherd.” God gave us certain limits, or boundaries, that we were supposed to stay within and those boundaries are His commandments. But like sheep, we have “strayed” from His boundaries, broken His commandments, and disobeyed God.

If we are to return we need to admit that we have strayed. We must admit that we have “strayed;” that we have sinned against God. We have been doing things we should not have done. We have been going the wrong way with our life. If we are not willing to admit to doing wrong, we can’t really be saved.

It’s just like the famous story of The Prodigal Son or The Lost Son that Jesus told in Luke 15. The young man left his father, and took his inheritance, and went on a journey into a distant country, and there “he squandered his estate on loose living”. He left his father both physically and spiritually.
But when he had “squandered” all his money, and he hit bottom, and would have been glad to eat what he was throwing out to the pigs, Jesus said in v. 17 “he came to his senses” and said “I will get up and go to my Father.”

And the story of The Prodigal Son is a picture of us all. This is what happens to each of us when we are saved: we had strayed away from God, “doing our own thing,” but then we realize we need to come back to Him.

What happened to the sheep who went astray and what happened to the Prodigal Son, are all pictures of what happens to every person who really gets saved: there has to be a “turning around” and a coming back to God. Peter calls it here “returning.” The theological word for it is to “repent.” “Repent” means that you had wandered off your own way, but now you have returned God, to follow Him.

Repentance is all about our relationship with God. God made us to know Him. When we “went astray”, we were going astray from GOD.
It was GOD who said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But we did.
It was GOD who said, “You shall not steal.” But we did.
It was GOD who said, “Do not get drunk with wine.”But we drank.
It was GOD who said, “Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth.” But many came.

We all have done these and many others. When we go astray, we go astray from God. Our sin cuts us off from our relationship with Him. Isaiah 59:2 says “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.”

When we went astray, we went astray from our relationship with God. And when we repent and return, we are returning to God Himself. Peter says, “You have returned TO THE SHEPHERD and overseer of your souls.” He didn’t say: ‘You came back to Jerusalem.” He doesn’t say, “You came back to the Temple.” He says you came back to the Shepherd — to HIM! God Himself is our object and goal in coming back.

When the Prodigal Son came to his senses that day he said, “I will arise and go to my Father”! He wasn’t just going back to food; he wasn’t just going back to money; he wasn’t just going back to comfort; most importantly of all, he was going back to his father, to HIM personally. He had “strayed” from him, but now he was going back to him.

Dear Friends this time of pandemic has given us a moment to lock ourselves, look into ourselves and see where we have gone wrong, where all have we strayed and decide to return back.

This Lenten Season calls us and urges us all the more to return to our Shepherd personally by admitting we have strayed and being ready to repent our sins and take a U Turn.

God Bless You.

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