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Waiting For Our Prodigals…..Be Like a….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” Luke 15:11-32 (ESV)
380 Would that you could acquire, as I know you would like to, the virtues of the donkey! Donkeys are humble, hardworking, persevering—stubborn!—and faithful, with a sure step, tough and—if they have a good master—also grateful and obedient.
In the last few months I’ve had a number of parents of adult and teenage children who’ve come to me for prayer. I hope and pray that my words gave them both hope and comfort.
The issue is often morality, in a couple of the situations, the immorality has led to horrendous consequences. The trauma on the parents is beyond anything I’e ever experienced. In the others, the fear of such trauma is intense, and seemingly unending. In both cases, fear and pain can seem unending, and reactions from those points can cause even more damage. Matter of fact, our lack of wisdom may cause more fear and anxiety. Those thoughts, words and actions we know are irreversible, but they aren’t beyond reconciliation.
So what do we do as parents, as pastors, as we wait for our prodigals to return? How do we deal with the anxieties, as our prodigals are away, enjoying themselves, or living with hogs in the mud? We don’t know all the story. We do the story of the prodigal, and hope that our situations will resolve in the same manner. We look out from our house often, looking down the road for some hope. We hear a car turn into our driveway, and our hearts are crushed, because it isn’t our prodigal.
Where do we find hope in this? What can help us find peace, find healing ourselves? What can help us, between the time they run off to follow strange desires, ignore logical morality, and turn their back on God? How do we avoid taking on the attitude of the cynical older brother, or just giving up hope, declaring the person dead to us?
We have to know the heart of Father, revealed in passages like this:
11 “I, the Sovereign LORD, tell you that I myself will look for my sheep and take care of them 12 in the same way as shepherds take care of their sheep that were scattered and are brought together again. I will bring them back from all the places where they were scattered on that dark, disastrous day. 13 I will take them out of foreign countries, gather them together, and bring them back to their own land. I will lead them back to the mountains and the streams of Israel and will feed them in pleasant pastures. 14 I will let them graze in safety in the mountain meadows and the valleys and in all the green pastures of the land of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will find them a place to rest. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken. 16 “I will look for those that are lost, bring back those that wander off, bandage those that are hurt, and heal those that are sick; but those that are fat and strong I will destroy, because I am a shepherd who does what is right. Ezekiel 34:11-16 (TEV)
This is our God, the Shepherd who diligently searches for His sheep, to bring them to restoration. Who hears our prayers, our cries, our grief. Who longs to rejoice when they come home. Who will never stop working to grant them repentance, transformation. You are not alone in your desire, and knowing that, we can find the patient hope we need to wait. We can find sustenance and rest. We can entrust them to God, knowing His love, and we can entrust ourselves to God at the same time.
Find you rest, your strength in Him. Know the peace of God, and that we can be like the Donkeys that Josemaria encourages us to be like. ( instead of the jackasses we could become! ) Faithful, stubbornly holding out hope, persevering, taking the right steps, one at a time, knowig our Master will guide us, for we dwell in His presence…..
And hopeful, for the Lord Almighty hasn’t forgotten our loved ones for a moment….
Lord, I pray for my friends, who children and grandchildren are caught up in things beyond them. Who have strayed, who have lost for the moment in darkness, in fog. Lord, be with them, and with those they love. Bring hope, bandage the wounds, given strength and sustain them. Help us to realize that You are reaching out to them, calling them to come home, and give us patience until we see them in Your Hands. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior, who lies and reigns with you an the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. AMEN
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1488-1490). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Will you depend on your King?
What was written, is written… in our hearts
John 19:16–42
† In Jesus Name †
May the cross convince you of the depth of God’s love for you!
The confrontation
Have you ever wondered why the chief priests were so frustrated, so needing to get Pontius Pilate to change what was on a piece of wood and nailed to the cross?
Remember – the relationship with between the priests and Pilate is already strained. This is the same Pilate that when angered before mixed the blood of Gentiles he had put to death with the blood offering of the temple. He had backed down to the crowd, and let them have what they wanted – to crucify this man that Pilate had judged innocent. And he did so at the risk of irritating his wife, who warned him to have nothing to do with Jesus. With Pilate already on edge, with a temper that was infamous, the chief priests approached Pilate and told him to change the words.
His answer was a quick dismissal – but spoke to his authority, and to a truth that Pilate testified to…
What I have written, I have written.
End of scene.
Whether he meant it to mock the priests, whether he meant it to mock Jesus, no matter what Pilate’s reason, he actually bore witness to the truth.
Jesus is the King of the Jews, He is the long awaited Messiah, the promised glorious one of Israel – the one whom in even the gentiles find hope.
But why were the priests so… insistent? Brave? Demanding?
Could it have to do with what Pilate recognized, and the reason he was inspired to use this particular word to describe Jesus?
The Meaning of Basileus
The King, the one who preached that the Kingdom of God is with you – who sent others to preach the Kingdom of God is near, Do we get what it means for Jesus to be King of the Jews?
Here is the most important point – it has less to do with authority or responsibility – and far more to do with…. Responsibility.
The kind of responsibility a parent has, when their child breaks a neighbor’s window, or when their child is threatened, or hurt. Someone who is King has responsibility for His subjects. The one who makes things right, at whatever personal cost.
Such is the idea of kingship, such is the concept of leadership in scripture. It is about providing for the people of the kingdom, about being responsible for their welfare, because it has been entrusted to you.
For the priests – this is not just counter to their own ministry style, where lording it over people was evident, but contrary to the kind of relationship they wanted with God. The last thing they wanted was God’s personal involvement in their stuff, cleaning up after their act.
It’s sort of like a teenagers reaction to his father and mother deciding to clean the teenager’s room. “it’s clean enough, it doesn’t need to be cleaned – and the embarrassment that comes when the pizza from a month ago is found under the bed. Or some really worrisome thing is found on their computer. We get too easily embarrassed when we realize our need for dependence on God to clean up our lives, to be the only One who can be responsible for our sin.
Because it can’t be us…. We just can’t do it. We, just like the priests who demanded Pilate remove the sign proclaiming Jesus to be the King, desperately need Him to be our King! We desperately need Him to provide, to care for us, to take responsibility for our sins, for our errors, for that which divides us from God.
And He did….
to the extent that even Pilate recognized it. Pilate who declared Jesus to be innocent. Who washed his hands of the case, who yet still delivered Christ to the place where He would take up the responsibility for us, for our actions, for our sin.
Rejoice my friends, find not sorrow in this moment, but the deepest joy. Because in Christ, we find our lives… cleansed, provided for, loved. And at peace, for
17 Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. 18 All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also. 19 Our message is that God was making all human beings his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends. 20 Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends! 21 Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (TEV)
Amen!
