What Does It Mean To Be Lost?

The Rolling Stones sang the most requested song in the 60s, and it was the song “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” This is the essence of being lost. As Emerson said, “Men live silent lives of desperation.” Nothing truly satisfies in this world, other than connecting with God in and through Jesus Christ. People are dissatisfied with life, and they try to fill it with things, experiences and people, but it doesn’t truly satisfy. Las Vegas is the Mecca for those who are dissatisfied and are trying to distract themselves from their emptiness. This is only one example of ways people try to fill their emptiness.

The problem is that people neglected their souls. Their soul, if they are lost, has a dead spirit. At times, I have been lost when riding in my off-road vehicle, but I know the general area I am in. Sometimes I have to backtrack or try another trail. Those spiritually lost don’t even know where in the world they are at. They don’t have a bearing. They are just ultimately on the road to nowhere. Many don’t care where they are going or where they will end up. They are truly lost.

If you are a non-Christian, you are spiritually dead. Your soul is tremendously out of kilter. We need to be raised from the dead just as Jesus was raised. He made it possible to be raised from the dead by taking the just penalty of our sin on a cross. If you are willing to turn from your sin and emptiness and place your faith in Jesus Christ, you can be raised by the power of God. You must come humbly to God, confessing yourself a sinner and asking to be forgiven in Jesus Christ and be willing to be a public disciple of Jesus. To be a disciple is to be a learner with Jesus. It is to be learning to be led by Jesus and walking in the same manner he walked, yet only He was and is God, the second person of the Trinity. You can experience the love of God, and that experience, combined with the power of God, will change you. However, you must continue to be fully and progressively and daily transformed.

When we enter the Kingdom of God by the power of God, we then need to learn to live in that kingdom by that same power. This is how we enter the kingdom, as Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see (or enter) the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Once we have entered the Kingdom of God, we need to go on to be a disciple of Jesus. Too often, people stop at being a Christian and never become a true disciple. To be a disciple is to be an apprentice of Jesus and learn to live in his fullness and do what he said to do. It is to walk in the Spirit instead of the flesh. (Romans 8) Jesus last words were, “ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”(Matthew 28:19-20). We can become apprentices of Jesus.

We must go on to experience the full restoration of our souls in Jesus Christ by truly becoming more and more Christlike. Our souls must be restored to the full glory in Christ, and thus the healing of the heart. There is so much fullness available to all those who are in Christ if they will intend and choose to walk daily with Jesus and feed themselves spiritually and align with God. This is not only on the exterior of our lives but also the interior as well. It is to deal with all the roots of the disorders that may have affected our souls and the bad habits in thinking and acting. The root must be healed.

As Augustine said of God, “Our hearts are restless until they find our rest in you.” Our souls are lost in this world, in the flesh and with the devil and out of order and off track and in the place of nowhere, until we connect with God in Jesus Christ. Besides that, our souls will be lost for eternity in hell. This is the place reserved by God for the souls of those whose spirit is dead. Every person is born without a full connection to God in and through Jesus Christ. However, God does not force you into a relationship.

As the Philosopher Theologian Blaise Pascal put it, “There is a God shaped vacuum in every person.” This is the reason for man’s emptiness. They are lost until they seek God, and God finds them.

God, in a sense, sends no one to hell; you choose it, and God honours your choice. Jesus makes entry into the Kingdom of God available to all when He comes preaching, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand or now available to all. Whether you appropriate this gift depends on your choice and the power of God, able to raise you from the dead.

The Christian can live in shallowness or go on to experience the depths of living in Jesus Christ. There is nothing more valuable, more fulfilling or satisfying. Life in Jesus is most glorious. When you experience this life in Christ, nothing in this world can compare.

Why would we continue to live in emptiness and pretend we are satisfied? What foolishness when a life of fullness is offered to us at an enormous cost to the giver? Choose this day who you will serve. Trying to be your own God is following the way of Satan, and choosing to honour God is choosing the way of God. Learn to glorify God, and you will find life. Today is the day of salvation.