Daily Affirmations - Day 6 - Questions and Answers - In Search of the One...

Day 6: In search of the one...

Because of Your great compassion You did not abandon them in the wilderness

Jesus said, “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine... and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of My Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:12-14 - ESV).

[Jesus] has a deep sympathy with each stray heart. He knows the sorrow that sin brings, the deep pollution and the terrible wounding that comes of transgression, even at the time; and the sore heart and the broken spirit that will come of it before long; and so the sympathetic Saviour grieves over each lost sheep, for He knows the misery which lies in the fact of being lost.

If you have ever been in a house with a [family] when a little child has been lost, you will never forget the agitation of each member of the household. See the father as he goes to the [police] and calls at every likely house; for he must find his child or break his heart. See the deep oppression and bitter anguish of the mother; she is like one distracted till she has news of her darling.

You now begin to understand what Jesus feels for one whom He loves, who is graven on the palms of His hands, whom He looked upon in the glass of His foreknowledge, when He was bleeding his life away upon the tree; He hath no rest in His spirit till His beloved is found. He has compassion like a God... that [surpasses] all the compassion of parents or of brothers, — the compassion of an infinite heart brimming over with an ocean of love. This one thought moves the pity of the Lord— “if He lose one of them.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon ~

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“Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine;

Are they not enough for Thee?”

But the Shepherd made answer: “This of Mine

Has wandered away from Me.

And although the road be rough and steep,

I go to the desert to find My sheep.”

But none of the ransomed ever knew

How deep were the waters crossed;

Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through

Ere He found His sheep that was lost.

Far out in the desert He heard its cry;

’Twas sick and helpless and ready to die.

“Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way,

That mark out the mountain’s track?”

“They were shed for one who had gone astray

Ere the Shepherd could bring him back.”

“Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn?”

“They’re pierced tonight by many a thorn.”

And all through the mountains, thunder-riv’n,

And up from the rocky steep,

There arose a glad cry to the gate of heav’n,

“Rejoice! I have found My sheep!”

And the angels echoed around the throne,

“Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!”

~ Elizabeth C. Clephane~ 1868

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