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The Searching Father

A Simple Prayer Will Get His Attention

The Parable of the Prodigal Son was told to remind you that whenever you return to God in heartfelt repentance, you are not returning to an unmoved deity, you are coming to a God who is scanning the horizon, looking for any sign that you are on your way home. And when he sees you, he doesn’t sit, he doesn’t wait, he doesn’t send his servants out to escort you home. No, he gets up and runs to you. When he reaches you, he throws his arms around you and kisses you and holds you like he will never let you go. Then he says to all of heaven, “let’s party!”

The Journey: Luke 15:20

And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is a story for the ages. It is one of Jesus’ most revered stories, even in non-Christian societies. People of all faiths love this parable because of its profound and moving message of love, forgiveness and reconciliation. But Jesus’ story is not so much about the prodigal son, or the even the elder brother, this is a story meant to give us a look inside the heart of God. So a more appropriate title would be “the searching father”.

You know the story well: A selfish son demands his inheritance from his father—in essence, declaring that he wishes to live as if his father were already dead. The son spends all the inheritance money on wasteful living. Finally, at the end of his ropes, the desperate son comes back home utterly crushed, knowing he will face humiliation from his father, hostility from his family and hatred from his scandalized community. Maybe he will be mocked—and rightly so—perhaps even beaten for the embarrassment he has caused his loved ones. As the prodigal reaches the outskirts of the village, word spreads in the community that this foolish boy has come back.

Then, something quite dramatic happens in the story. As the people gather to watch his return, “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20, NLT)

Don’t quickly pass by those words: “He ran to his son.” That is a stunning statement. One scholar in ancient Near Eastern culture reminds us that a revered man would never run. It would be a violation of his dignity. Aristotle wrote, “Great men never run…Great men are run to.” People run to them. Children run, those who are desperate or afraid may run. So Jesus has the wrong person running in this story.

Or does he? No, Jesus is revealing something very important about God’s heart. The heart of this prodigal son’s father—which represents God’s heart—is so full that he forgets everything: he forgets his dignity, he forgets everybody is watching, and he sees only the starving, exhausted, beaten down figure of a boy he had given up for dead, and the father takes off like a homesick angel, running toward his son. And when he reaches him, he starts kissing him over and over again. The father then wants everyone to know that he will fully restore his son, so he has the servants dress the boy in his finest robe, he puts his ring on him as a sign of his authority, he gives him new shoes, and he has his servants prepare a feast.

The Jesus offers these amazing words in Luke 15:24, “So the party began”

That is God. That is God’s heart. That is why Jesus told this story. That is what Jesus wants you to know. Whoever you are, wherever you have been, whatever you have done, the Father doesn’t want you to be distanced from him or to return to him only to live under a cloud of guilt and a burden of regret. He wants you as his fully loved, fully accepted daughter or son. As Henri Nouwen put it, “This is the portrayal of God, whose goodness, love, forgiveness, care, joy and compassion have no limits at all.” God’s tender mercy gives the prodigal a second chance; his unconditional grace gives the prodigal a five course meal.

Jesus wants you to know that whenever you return to God in heartfelt repentance, you are not returning to an unmoved deity, you are coming to a God who is scanning the horizon, looking for any sign that you are on your way home. And when he sees you, he doesn’t sit, he doesn’t wait, he doesn’t send his servants out to escort you home. No, he gets up and runs to you. When he reaches you, he throws his arms around you and kisses you and holds you like he will never let you go.

Then he says to all of heaven, “let’s party!” That is how much you mean to your searching Father.

Do you need to “come home” to the Father? Don’t keep him waiting!

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, many times I have been that prodigal son. I have wished to live as if you were dead. But you have always welcomed me home as a fully restored child. I have nothing with which to repay you; all I can do is simply, but with all my heart, say “thank you!”
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What God Prioritizes (Must Be Our Priority)

What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when even one solitary soul finds salvation. Lost people matter to God; they must matter to us as well!

The Journey: Luke 15:7

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

The message of this chapter is unmistakable: Lost people matter to God!

Jesus tells three parables that make up the entirety of Luke 15: The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each story features something lost—something of such value—that no expense and no effort are spared to see to their return.

At the end of each of these three stories Jesus uses a line to speak of the unmitigated joy expressed in their recovery:

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! (Luke 15:7)

In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents. (Luke 15:10)

We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found! (Luke 15:32)

Again, the message is clear: God’s highest priority is the reclamation of lost people. They matter to God. And all of heaven celebrates their return.

Likewise, there is a clear application of utmost importance here for you and me: Since lost people matter to God, they ought to matter to us as well. No expense and no effort should be spared to aid in their recovery. Furthermore, we ought also to celebrate what heaven celebrates—the return of even one sinner to God.

But with these stories comes a clear warning: Watch out for we might call E.B.S.—Elder Brother Syndrome (see Luke 15:25-30). E.B.S. resents the attention and effort made in the recovery and repentance of the sinner, and it is so easy to slip into it. It grows out of self-righteousness. It questions the authenticity of the sinner’s repentance. It refuses to rejoice at what heaven celebrates.

And it couldn’t be further from what is at the very the heart of heaven, and our Father who resides there. Honestly, have you been infected with E.B.S., even just a little? Perhaps you should go to God and ask for forgiveness, and his help in getting a right attitude.

The call of Luke 15 must be our calling, too! What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when one finds salvation—even the no good, dirty rotten, undeserving ones. (Hint: we all fit into that category apart from God’s grace!) Lost people matter to God; at the deepest part of our being, they must matter to us as well!

Considering God’s heart for sinners, Charles Spurgeon compellingly captured what our heart toward them ought to be: “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”

If lost people matter so much to God that he goes to such great lengths to rescue them, then we should pull out all the stops to do the same.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, since unrepentant, unredeemed sinners be damned for all eternity, then cause me to be so broken for them that they have to leap into hell over my body. May there never be one of them in my life whom I didn’t warn and for whom I didn’t unrelentingly pray.
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The Better End of the Stick — By Far!

What Jesus requires us to give up to follow him is infinitely small in comparison to what he gives us. Namely, we are given a new identity: restored children of God. We are given a new destination: heaven—eternal life in God’s forever kingdom. We are given a new destiny: ambassadors for Christ in this life and co-regents in his ever-expanding, life-teaming universes in the age to come. And we are given every spiritual blessing in his Father’s treasury: joy, satisfaction, healing, divine authority, power over the forces of darkness, forgiveness of sin, peace with God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, restoration of the pre-fall Adamic potential—God powers of rulership and creativity, and on and on the list of blessings goes. For sure, we get the better end of the stick in this deal—by far!

The Journey: Luke 14:25-27

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Unfortunately, in modern American Christianity, we often start with the negative rather than focusing on the positive. We do this especially as it relates to faith: we begin with what we have to give up to follow Jesus rather than what we gain. If we were in sales (which, in a very real sense, as evangelical believers, we are “selling” Jesus to unbelievers, we would probably not make very many sales. And that may explain why church growth by conversion is quite stale in our culture.

Now to be sure, in Luke 9:23, Jesus did talk about discipleship in terms of self-denial (let him deny himself), daily cross bearing (take up his cross) and unreserved followership (follow me). In truth, we have to untether from the shore of our fallen nature and our corrupt culture in order to set sail on the oceans of faith.

And Jesus was always very clear about that because, as we see in Luke 9, and here in Luke 14, and again in any place and time where people are attracted to him, he will make clear in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t just want adoring crowds, he wants committed discipleships. In fact, Jesus said something that to our modern ears is quite stunning, and not in a good way, in Luke 14:25. He boldly stated that one has to hate his mother and father in order to truly follow him.

Now what in the world did he mean by that. Well, Jesus was using an appropriate form of speech called hyperbole—exaggeration to make a critical point. Of course, he doesn’t want us to actually hate our parents, or anyone for that matter. We are called in the Great Commandment to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves, and only by this can we really claim that we love our God with all of our heart, mind and strength. (Luke 10:25-28)

So the point Jesus is making in such a dramatic way is that our passionate commitment for him must be so strong and unquestionable that our affection for our families (or whatever we hold most dear) would pale by comparison—that when put side-by-side, it would be considered hatred. In other words, the clear priority of our lives must be unqualified loyalty, unconditional love and unreserved followership as Christ followers.

Still, what Jesus requires us to give up is infinitely small in comparison to what he gives us. Namely, we are given a new identity: restored children of God. We are given a new destination: heaven—eternal life in the forever kingdom of God. We are given a new destiny: ambassadors for Christ in this life and co-regents in his ever-expanding, life-teaming universes in the age to come. And we are given every spiritual blessing in his Father’s treasury: joy, satisfaction, healing, divine authority, power over the forces of darkness, forgiveness of sin, peace with God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, restoration of the pre-fall Adamic potential—God powers of rulership and creativity (see Genesis 21:28, “You shall be fruitful and increase…you have subdue and rule.”) and on and on the list of blessings goes.

Now who wouldn’t be willing to give their right arm to have all that? Actually, who wouldn’t be willing to die to their sinful self in order to come alive to all that Jesus gives when we unreservedly surrender to him? No one in their right mind would reject that!

Yes, we get the far better end of the stick in this transaction—by far. Perhaps we ought to start with that when we talk to those who don’t know Jesus yet.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, overwhelm me in the knowledge of this free gift of salvation. Help me to fully see what I gained, and make me infinitely glad that the very best of what I surrendered was nothing but garbage in comparison to your indescribable gifts of grace.
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Take A Break From You

Jesus perfectly modeled authentic humility, so his life has something to teach us about humility. Try practicing humility this week in one of the ways Jesus did: Washing the feet of another, playing with little children, serving the poor, or having a meal with social outcasts.

The Journey: Luke 14:10-11

Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table…For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exaltedJesus perfectly modeled authentic humility, so his life has something to teach us about humility. Try practicing humility this week in one of the ways Jesus did: Washing the feet of another, playing with little children, serving the poor, or having a meal with social outcasts..

Since several times in the New Testament we are told to clothe ourselves in humility, here’s the question I have for you: If you were clothed in your own humility, would you be scantily clad?

Humility is one of the prominent virtues of Jesus, and therefore, it should be the prominent virtue of his followers. Humility doesn’t mean thinking less of yourself than others; nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts, abilities and station in life. It simply means freedom from thinking about yourself one way or the other at all. Mike Show said it quite well,

Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.

William Carey, who lived 200 years ago, was known as the “father” of the modern missions movement. He was a Baptist missionary to India where he served for forty-one years translating the Scriptures. Not once did he ever return to his home country of England. When Carey took ill with the disease that would eventually take his life, he was asked to select the Scripture that would be shared at his funeral. He replied, “Oh, I feel that such a poor sinful creature is unworthy to have anything said about him; but if a funeral sermon must be preached, let it be from the words, ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.’”

One of the things that made William Carey great was the kind of humility you witness in that statement. That wasn’t just a false humility either, for he directed his own gravestone to be engraved with this epitaph:

William Carey
Born, August 17, 1761
Died, June 9, 1834
A wretched, poor, and helpless worm,
On Thy kind arms I fall.

To truly enter into that kind of authentic humility, which is the kind that Jesus described, you’ve got to start thinking less of yourself.

Let me give you a challenge this week: Forget about yourself! Try it. Practice being absent minded when it comes to you. Get you out of your thoughts, and replace them with prayers of blessings and plans for serving for other people in your life. Try living every moment of your life for the glory of God alone.

And see what happens. I suspect that if you allow the Lord to change your attitude, the simple joy of just belonging to him will be the result.

Jesus perfectly modeled authentic humility, so his life has something to teach us about humility. Try practicing humility this week in one of the ways Jesus did: Washing the feet of another, playing with little children, serving the poor, or having a meal with social outcasts.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I am nothing without you. I can do nothing apart from you. I have no hope, no life, no future except through you. You are my all in all, so to you alone I cling.
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Narrow and Intolerant

Jesus himself was indisputably clear that there was one, and only one way, to forgiveness of sin and life forever with the Father. Does that sound narrow? It most definitely is — but so is a runway, and landing exclusively on it is the only way to get the airplane you are on safely to its destination. When it is the only way, thank God for narrowness and intolerance!

The Journey: Luke 13:24

Someone asked Jesus, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.”

Christianity is often accused these days of being a narrow and intolerant religion. Guilty as charged! You can come up with no other verdict. After all, just look at the overwhelming verbal evidence offered by its founder, Jesus Christ. Here are just a few of his outrageous claims from the Gospel of John:

For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day. (John 6:40, NLT)

Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. (John 6:53-54, The Message)

I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. (John 10:7-9, NLT)

I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. (John 11:25-26, CEV)

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. (John 14:16, NLT)

We could fill page after page with Jesus’ claims about himself and the exclusive authority he possessed to grant eternal life to only those who solely follow him. For anyone who takes the time to actually read Jesus’ own words, the truth is abundantly evident: Jesus is unequivocally exclusive, narrow and intolerant about the way to eternal life.

Of course, he loves and died for the whole world: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

And, of course, he didn’t stand on a street corner condemning those who refused to believe in him: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

And, for sure, Jesus steadfast resists closing the door on anyone’s eternal salvation: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise [of returning in judgment], as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

Yet the indisputable truth about Jesus is that he was very clear that there was one, and only one way, to forgiveness of sin and life forever with the Father.

Does that sound narrow? It most definitely is — but so is a runway, and landing exclusively on it is the only way to get the airplane you are on safely to its destination. When it is the only way, thank God for narrowness and intolerance!

Have you ever taken the time to pray the most important prayer—really, the one prayer that empowers all other prayers—to acknowledge that Jesus is both Lord and Savior, to confess your sins and ask him to forgive you, to invite him into your life as your one and only Master and Commander, then to commit to walk the straight and narrow path that he has set before you? If not, I hope you will do that right now!

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I pray for my loved ones who have never surrendered their lives to you through believing in Jesus, the only sacrifice for their sins. Would you convict their hearts today, and open their eyes to the one and only way to eternal life!
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When Bad Things Happen

Invariably, when tragedy strikes a family, or a community, or even a nation, like clockwork, people ask, “How could a loving God allow this? Of course, there is really no explanation that will satisfy that question. But there is an answer! Jesus himself said, in response to that question on the heels of a tragedy, “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” The answer to the tragedies that occur in this broken world and the antidote to the tragedy of human sin that brings death to every human being is eternal life. That is how God has dealt with human tragedy.

The Journey: Luke 13:1-5

About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

One of the sad realities of living in a world broken by sin is tragedy. We witness it all the time, and sometimes we are personally touched by it: an infant dies in her sleep, a teenager is killed when his car crashes; a mother loses her battle with cancer; a quarter of a million people are wiped out by an tsunami in a poverty-stricken region.

Out of these tragic events, like clockwork, we hear some shocked and grief-stricken person ask, “How could a good God allow such evil?” Of course, they are searching for some sort of answer that will make sense out of the insensible. They are trying to find some explanation other than the simple reality of living in a broken world where bad things happen to people—good people as well as bad people. And when no sensible answer is forthcoming, God gets accused.

This is the equivalent to what Jesus was asked. A group of innocent Galileans had been killed while they were worshiping. Eighteen people left home one morning like every other day, but on this day a tower collapsed, killing them all. How could a good God…? How do we make sense of this tragedy?

Did you notice Jesus’ answer? He didn’t really give them the answer they wanted. In a way, he brushed aside their question and went to the heart of the matter: sin. Sin kills. It brings death. And as long as there is life on Planet Earth, not only will there be inexplicable tragedies, but every person will die sooner or later. So far, the death rate for human beings is hovering around 100%.

So what is the explanation? There is really no explanation that will satisfy the “how could a good God?” question. But there is an answer—Jesus said, “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” The answer to the tragedies that occur in this broken world and the antidote to the tragedy of human sin that brings death to every human being is eternal life. Augustine said,

We want to reach the kingdom of God , but we don’t want to travel the byway of death. And yet there stands Necessity saying: “This way, please.” Do not hesitate, man, to go this way, when this is the way that God came to you.

Always remember, repentance trumps sin, salvation neutralizes death, and the cross has defeated the grave. That’s how a good God has dealt with the tragedy of life in a world broken by sin.

Take a moment to thank your Heavenly Father for the precious gift of salvation—and eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord. It is that one very special and undeserved gift that will trump every evil that will come against you in this life.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, thank you for salvation, your gift of grace so rich and so free. And through your precious gift, I will live eternally with you.
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Rich Fools

John Calvin said, “where riches hold the dominion of the heart, God has lost his authority.” What holds the dominion of your heart? There is no more important question you will be asked today.

The Journey: Luke 12:20-21

But God said to him, “You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?” Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.[/cal6lout]

Even if you manage to keep your stuff safe to the end of your life, you will certainly take it no further than the grave. That is why you will never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul or a casket with a trunk for all your junk! Death is the great equalizer that turns millionaires into paupers and paupers into millionaires.

No—you can’t take it with you; but you can send it on ahead. That is what Jesus is reminding us of here in this story of a very wealthy man who spent it all right here with no thought of over there! (Luke 12:13-21, NLT) The point Jesus is making is that those who are not rich toward the things of God in this life will be exposed as fools when they stand before the Great Judge. “Rich fools” now—that is what they really are; simply “fools” on the day of reckoning.

We need to lean into that truth, because that day will come sooner than we think. The great preacher, G. Campbell Morgan said it so well:

“You are to remember with the passion burning in you that you are not a child of today. You are not of the earth, you are more than dust; you are the child of tomorrow, you are of the eternities, you are the offspring of Deity…You belong to the infinite. If you make your fortune on earth—poor, sorry, silly soul—you have made a fortune, and stored it in a place where you cannot hold it. Make your fortune, but store it where it will greet you in the dawning of the new morning.”

That is what Jesus was teaching: To break the spell of that which holds our vision and our loyalties here on earth, we need send our investments in advance to heaven. According to Jesus, whatever we generously invest in God’s kingdom on earth will always produce treasure in heaven:

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” (Luke 12:21-24, NLT)

Don’t be a rich fool! Store up treasure in heaven by making investments in God’s work here on earth. That is what will break the spell of money, power and things in your life—and invest in that which will never lose its value—the eternal things of heaven. Francis Quarles said, “There is no such merchant as the charitable man; he gives trifles which he could not keep, to receive treasure which he cannot lose.”

That is the truly wise person!

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, at any price, I want to have a rich relationship with you!