God continues to blow my mind through this parenting thing—and this past Sunday He taught me another lesson about His love.
Let me ask a quick question—have you ever felt far from God? Or, to put it a better way—has there ever been a time that you were closer to God than you are right now?
I think we’ve all been there—everyone of us. Maybe we just stopped having personal time with Him…or maybe we chose to bathe in sin for awhile, damaging the fellowship we had with Him. Whatever the circumstances I know that many people who ARE followers of Jesus often times feel distant from Him.
AND…for whatever reason…when this happens we often begin to think, “God is mad at you; in fact, He is so ill with you that if you did come back—He probably wouldn’t want anything to do with you! After all, you did (fill in the blank)—and no one could ever do something like that and then be loved by God!”
So Sunday the service was over and the first thing I thought of was, “I want to get home to see my little girl.” Please understand—I wanted fellowship with her—but I initiated it. I put forth an all out effort to get to her!!! In fact, I think I may have “fractured” the speed limit trying to get home.
Folks—get that—I went all out in an effort to make it to her—that’s just what a loving father does!
We see the same situation in Luke 15:11-32, many know this as the story of the prodigal son. Here we see, for many of us, OUR story…
- The son leaves the fellowship of the father (Luke 15:13)
- The son made a series of dumb decisions that completely dishonored His father. (Luke 15:13-14)
- The son wound up in a situation that could only be described as rock bottom. (Luke 15:15-16)
- The son thought, “Dad would never take me back as a son…but I could work for Him!” We think the same thing many times—that we have to work off all of our bad stuff. (Luke 15:17-19)
- The father was looking for the son!!! (Luke 15:20)
- The father RAN TO THE SON!!! (Luke 15:20)
- The father restored the fellowship with the son! (Luke 15:20)
- The father did not punish the son!
- In fact, when we see in Luke 15:20 that the father threw his arms around him…that is POWERFUL because, according to the Law, this son had dishonored his father and deserved to die! The traditional way was stoning…and so when the father threw his arms around the son he was saying, “I will take the punishment intended for him!” That’s exactly what God did for us through Jesus—took our punishment!
Unfortunately this is NOT the picture the church paints of God many times—too often we see Him as an overzealous killjoy that simply wants to ruin our lives…and that if we make Him mad—it is LIGHTS OUT!
NOT TRUE! The good news is that no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done—right now you can turn back to God…and HE WILL RUN TO YOU!!!
One more thing…please keep in mind that the prodigal son repented of his sin! He came to the point where he realized, “This is not where I want to be…this is wrong,” and he turned from his ways! This is the decision that we need to make if we want to experience the fellowship of the Father. NOT working the sin off…but admitting, “God, this isn’t where I need to be…I want to come home.”
Has there ever been a time that you were closer to God than you are right now? If so—what are you waiting for…get out of the pig pen and head home to the Father—He’s waiting!