Going After the Prodigals

I recently watched a sermon on one of the Christian TV channels by one of my favourite Preachers, Joel Osteen. He was speaking on how important it is to bring in the prodigals. By that he meant all those Christians who had lost their faith, fallen by the way side, back-slidden and had stopped coming to church. We so often hear about bringing in the lost, but seldom to encourage the prodigals to come back home! I don t know what the statistics are but I am sure that for every new believer there are those that fall away. His message was so simple, yet crucial and really made me think. He said that those people who usually sit around us at church we should consider as our flock and be watching over them and noticing when they are not there. So often, we just wonder what happened to so-and-so, but then we never follow through to find out. Joel says that we must seek after them to encourage them to keep them in the fold. All it takes is a contact to let them know we miss them, we love them and that the body of Christ needs them. Afterwards I couldn t help wondering who I should be looking up to encourage, but God had already heard my heart. That very same day, I bumped into three people who I had not seen for ages and it was as if God was saying to me that these are the ones who needed my encouragement. We must always remember that although our prayers for others are vital, it is very often our own voices that God uses as His mouthpiece to encourage His children!