Posted on 09/01/2019 3:48:57 PM PDT by metmom
“They were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).
One of Jesus’ main motives for ministry was the knowledge of man’s lost condition. He saw the people He lived among in the reality of their need. He was moved by their diseases and sickness, and He healed every one of them (v. 35). But He was moved even more deeply by the deepest need that most of the multitude did not even know they had—to be freed from their bondage to sin. He saw their hearts, and He knew that inwardly “they were distressed and dispirited.”
Jesus saw the multitudes as being inwardly devastated by their sinful and hopeless condition. The idea behind “dispirited” is to be thrown down prostrate and utterly helpless. Jesus saw the dispirited multitudes as sheep without a shepherd to protect and care for them.
Those who claimed to be the shepherds of the multitude were the scribes and Pharisees, yet it was those very shepherds who were largely responsible for the people’s confusion and hopelessness. The people were spiritually led by uncaring, unloving leaders who should have been meeting their spiritual needs. That’s why Jesus calls the people “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6)—God’s chosen people who had been left to perish.
Ask Yourself
Begin to develop Jesus’ motive for ministry as your own. Take every opportunity to introduce others to the Great Shepherd.
Studying God’s Word ping
After I got saved, I looked back on my life, and I was blown away by my previous spiritual blindness. I simply couldn’t see my lost condition, even as a member of a false religion.
I know.
I can’t tell you how many things I read or heard and it made sense to me and I wondered *HOW did I miss that?????*
It is hard to do these days. Paul Washer tweeted not too long ago about not seeing those that are so lost as the enemy, but rather the mission field. I struggle with that.
They are both, but Jesus told us what to do in regards to our enemy.
There are some who are genuinely deceived, and there are those who are not. The ones who are not and who are actively trying to destroy this country, re the ones I struggle with the most.
But then again, look at the Apostle Paul. He was Saul first, the one who was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.
It helps to remember who our real enemy is, and those people are pawns that the enemy is using, even if they do it voluntarily, but the real motivation behind them is demonic.
It’s OK, I think, to hate the demonic.
The struggle is real.
Me, on the other hand, I only heard what I was told in that other false religion. I never really heard the TRUTH, till I was already in the Air Force. I knew, pretty quickly, this was what I had been searching for, my entire life. It was a life changing experience. 👍😁🇵🇭 We each had the perfect timing, that God planned for, for coming to faith in Him. I am sure we all wish we had come to God much earlier in life, but God knew when our time would come. 👍
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