Sheep astray

"My sheep ... I give them eternal life ; they shall never perish, and no one shall pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand." John 10: 28-29

We probably all know someone in our family or neighborhood who, after claiming to be saved and having lived as a believer, has moved away from the Lord. He has since lived without bothering to please her. This tragic distance can range from mere indifference to open opposition to the Christian faith. But the fact is there: this person has abandoned the Lord to whom she declared to belong.

We are sad and we ask ourselves the question : If the Lord returned today, would our friend be taken with us to meet him or would he remain with the unbelievers to share their fate ? Question often unanswered, for God alone knows the existence of the divine life in someone.

Yet, when this person has clearly manifested the fruits of this life, we are allowed to think that she was and remains a sheep of the Lord. It is a sheep who has lost, indeed, a sheep who refuses to listen to the calls of his shepherd, but a sheep that the Lord loves in spite of everything. What comfort we find then in the words of the Lord : he gives his sheep eternal life, a life that will have no end, a life that does not depend on their behavior ! No one shall pluck one of his sheep out of his hand, or out of the hand of his Father.

We are sad, however, in thinking of the sadness of the Lord, even greater than ours, to the dishonor which results from it for the disastrous effect which it may produce on others.

Our sorrow also comes from the fact that the brother or sister who has moved away from the Lord no longer has the joy of feeling peace with God: his conscience is certainly not at ease ; Perhaps God, in his fidelity, will use painful means to bring his child back to him.

So do not be afraid to pray for those who seem to have forsaken the Lord ; let us pray with the assurance that the love of God does not change. Eternal life is a gift, and the one who receives it possesses it for eternity.

Source (To pleasing the Lord)