Restlessness and Joylessness

So for those of you who know...I've just been in a funk lately. As simply put, I've been feeling like a bum...like I've been wasting my life. And I've been having this feeling of restlessness and not really finding joy in life or having the motivation for much. I've shared it with a few friends and gotten lots of comforting advice and wisdom from a lot of them. I was sharing with this one friend who I see as really wise and definitely firmly grounded in her faith. I was just sharing with her how I've been feeling as well as what my friends have told me. And she told me...maybe you've been feeling weird and off because you've been neglecting God, not reading your bible...and not really having Him as the centre of your life. And the more and more I thought about it, the more and more it really hit me about how true it was. Maybe the reason why I've been feeling like this...this unexplainable feeling...is because I've been neglecting God and not really giving Him any time at all. And this is God's way of pulling me back. And because I've been neglecting God and ignoring what He's been having to say to me...he told me exactly what I needed to hear through friends...and through their wisdom and experiences. She told me that God knows you haven't been on track with Him, not reading your bible or really taking steps forward to grow in my faith...and I guess God used my friends to kinda put me back on the right track. Cuz I definitely feel better about this whole situation...to focus my heart and mind on God...and let everything else fall into place. Mt 2 friends helped me figure out a devo plan or at least a way to start consistently reading my bible and my other friend and I are keeping each other accountable and we're going to both read Philippians together, so that's definitely encouraging for me. And for some reason, after talking to my friend...the parable of the lost sheep came to my head. How I felt like I've been drifting away from God...and God even with all of his other sheep to tend to...left the herd to come find me, to bring me back to Him...and it honestly gave me so much joy and strength to understand and appreciate that.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15:1-7