Editor’s Note: So many girls across the country have been preparing speeches for the Lads to Leaders convention and were unable to give them because it was cancelled. We are spending the next few weeks celebrating the hard work of these young ladies by sharing their speeches with you! We are so incredibly proud of them and know that you will be encouraged and uplifted by their words. 

Macie Bess, age 11
Highland church of Christ, Techumseh, OK

Lost. We’ve all been there, right? My story, however, may be a little different than yours, because, I didn’t know I was lost. My Bible class was taking a test, and a group of us finished reasonably early. This group was instructed to join the adult class for the rest of the night, but I went to another class, with other kids my age. When my mom finished her test, she went to the adult class to find me, and, as you may have guessed, I wasn’t there. Of course, she was panicked and ran to get my dad. They did eventually find me, and when they did, I got in big trouble. This experience reminds me of our relationship with God. We are lost in our sin, we can be found, and we can fall away again. Let’s study these things and learn a little more about them.

First, we are lost in our sins, although some don’t know it. In fact, John 8:34 says, “Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” This means that if we sin at all, we are its slaves. That does not sound like a life I want to be living. Sin causes us to be lost, just like the lost sheep Jesus speaks about in Luke 15:4-6 saying, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!”’ God rejoices when the lost are found and return to him. Just like my parents rejoiced when they found me.

Second, we can be found. Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead just so that we can be forgiven. Thank goodness he did! I think the world would be a miserable place if everyone knew they were lost and could do nothing about it. God seeks earnestly to save us, just like the shepherd in Luke 15. Salvation is easy. We just have to follow God’s plan of salvation; hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized, and remain faithful until death.

However, we can fall away. Some people think that, once you are a Christian, all temptations cease and you are saved forever without any struggle. This is not entirely true. You see, when you become a Christian, you are saved, but you will still be tempted, and you will give in to these temptations sometimes. This is when we have a choice. We can repent, pray to God for forgiveness, and continue living the saved life of a faithful Christian, or we can decide to stop trying, stop worrying about God, return to our old life in sin, and essentially, fall away. Anyone can make this second choice at any point in their lives. This is why we must always be on guard, just like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:12. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

In conclusion, we are lost without Jesus, we can be found through God’s grace, and we can fall away. If you are lost, God is seeking earnestly to find you, even more so than my parents were seeking to find me when I was lost. If you are a found, God fearing Christian, be on guard, because you can fall away. Of course, if you realize you have fallen away and ask God for forgiveness, he will forgive you, you will be a found Christian again, and he will rejoice to have you safe in his fold again. When the day of judgement comes and the saved go up to heaven, will you be ready to go with them? Will you have followed Jesus to the very end? The choice is yours. What will you do with it?