FOUND, FILLED, SOULY SATISFIED
Be FOUND Bible Study Method
"Amazing grace how sweet the sound. I once was lost but now am found.” The feeling of being found is unmatched in its emotional attachment from the one found to the One Finding. So, too, is the feeling of being full and its association to the one from whom the sustenance comes.
Contentment, at its peak, is then in being found. Filled. Complete. No space left open for the enemy to toy with or gnaw on. So, how can one truly be full and found?
It was the summer of 1984 and our parents had taken us to a water park. My dad was in charge of my younger brother and myself while mom took the older three sibs to do the big kids stuff. My memory has a few gaps, but I do remember walking down a concrete pathway in the blazing hot sun holding my dad’s hand.
He released my hand for just a second to get a better hold on my little brother, who was in his arms. At about the same time, a large group of people had somehow appeared all around us. I reached up to take my dad’s hand again, but the hand I grabbed did not belong to my dad. When I looked up into the face of a stranger, I panicked and ran back through the throng of people looking frantically for my dad.
Even as an adult I can still remember that initial recognition or realization of lostness and it still, steals my breath and the very next beat of my heart skips a bit. I ran into the first building I came to, which just happened to be the locker room. I found a corner and tried to squish my little body into it with my knees pulled up to my chest and my head bowed, thinking that if I couldn’t see people then people wouldn’t be able to see me either.
I stayed there frozen in fear for the next few hours. My mom tells me that when she saw my father next, she was actually coming down a steep water slide and noticed on the way down my absence, at which point she began screaming, “Wherrrrrrre issssss Jane?!!”
My dad, immediately upon realizing I was even gone, panicked, as any good father would, and hurriedly began searching through the crowd, still cradling my little brother against his chest.
My next memory is hearing my dad’s voice as he runs into the locker room, calling my name with an urgency I had never heard him have in his voice before then. I looked up and lept into his arms.
Safe. Sound. Found.
Now, imagine with me the opposite of this scenerio? The feeling of not being found. Lost. Hopeless. Panic. Fear. How many of us willingly stay lost as the Father comes for you, urgently yet tenderly calling you by the name He gave you?
Willingly staying lost is as crazy as if I had looked up at my dad, who had tears in his eyes at the relief of finally finding me, and as he reached for me, imagine me swatting his hand away and saying, “Nah, I’m good.”
That sounds ridiculous.
What kid would ever do that to a good father? Lostness just needs to be found. The shadowy places need to be lit up. Fear can only abolished in the light of Love.
Pause and think with me for a moment, in this situation, who does all the work?
The Finder.
The lost are just lost, but the Finder.... oh the Finder seeks and searches out that which is lost. Running and urgently calling.
Do you know the only reference where we see a picture of God running? This is when the lost prodigal son returns home and the Father runs to meet him. He ran. Just picture it- God, the Father running, urgently calling you because you, Precious One, are worth running to and worth finding.
You, though not perfect, have been perfectly made for His purpose for you. You are His Masterpiece. You were made to be a masterpiece. Made by the Master. The only place to be found is in and through the Word of God!
This is why I want to share with the The FOUND Bible Study Method. It is an inductive approach to help you discover tools to dig in and discover the beauty of who God is as He would choose to define Himself, and it is only then, in the Light of who He is can you truly be found!
Come along on a journey to learn how to study the Bible in a way that will help us to always be FOUND in His word!
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