Christianity Oasis Forum

[logi bear]

A devotional from my church : )

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The amazing grace of God! Luke 15 is about the prodigal son—how he ran out from his Father’s house and took all of his possessions and his inheritance. He ended up in the pig pen. He went out to live a life of sin and to please his flesh. He did whatever it was that he wanted to do until he ran out of sources and resources. He ran out of the ability to continue to carry on in the flesh. After coming to a place of brokenness and depravity, he decides that he would rather be a servant in his father’s house, than to live in the pig pen. He decides to go home and beg his father to let him be one of his servants and forget being a son.

If you are or you’ve been a prodigal, and you’ve been playing around with things that you know are wrong, and you’re in a back-slidden place, God is waiting for you to repent and come back. You may not be going to bars and backsliding in outward ways, but maybe your heart is not in a good place. Whenever you and I don’t listen to the voice, and clear direction of the Lord, we put ourselves in a predicament. Whenever we head “down to Egypt,” because Egypt is always a journey downward, we are headed for trouble. Compromise always leads to sin.

The Prodigal Son had enough of the pig pen and he headed home, to his father’s house. There’s his dad, on the porch, waiting for him to come home! Imagine what the son must have been thinking as he walked up to his father’s house? Was he thinking about what his explanation would be to his dad? How embarrassed he must have felt. We can do the same thing and wonder how we are ever going to face God after what we’ve done.

Romans 7 describes the battle of the believer. We find ourselves in a trench sometimes. And then we wonder how we are going to get back right with the Lord. How are we supposed to face God, our Father? When we read chapters like Luke 15, we know that the very instant the son comes back, God is there, waiting… and He blesses! That’s the heart of God. He hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s just waiting for you to come back. God doesn’t lie. He’s told us that He will never leave us or forsake us. He is with us, even to the end of the age.

Maybe it’s you whose been wandering, out in the world, doing what you want to do, messing with compromise. Stop wandering. It’s a one-step process back to the Father, Christian. Go right back to your first love, as it says in Revelation. God is there, waiting for you. He’s not going to greet you with, “What’s wrong with you?” He’s not going to kick you and call you an idiot. His arms are open wide, the same way they were on the cross of Calvary. He’s ready to forgive you. Repent and it’s over. He will never bring those sins up again. The blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient. That is the heart of our Father in Heaven.