ICS Daily Devotions
The Heart of our Father
Luke 15:6-7 “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
God wants His creation to know Him. He searches out for us to know Him, commune with Him and worship Him. Yet, God also gives us free will to accept or reject Him. His heart though remains the same.
In the whole passage in Luke 15:1-32, Jesus used three examples to stress the importance of saving souls and to show the heart of our Father.
In the first example, Jesus talked about something familiar to many of the Jews at that time – a parable of a shepherd losing one sheep from his flock of one hundred. Would the shepherd abandon the one lost sheep since he still has so many more? Each one of the sheep belongs to the shepherd and to lose any would just be unthinkable. All the more for our Heavenly Father, who created every precious human being to be called His child. This is the Heart of our Father. Even as earthly parents, we will use all means to locate our lost child and rejoice when he or she is found. Likewise, all
heaven rejoices when another soul is saved for eternity.
In another analogy, Jesus talked about a woman whose prized possessions are ten silver coins. When one was lost, she scoured every corner of her home, looking for that lost coin. Similarly to the first example, the elation was great when the lost coin was finally found. She even went around to her friends and neighbors to share the good news. In the same way, our Heavenly Father will search all corners to find every lost soul and His heart rejoices when a soul is saved.
In the third example, when the prodigal son willfully asked for his inheritance before the death of his father, the father respected his free will and gave him the share of his inheritance. However, the son squandered all that he had with bad choices and finally decided to return home to ask to work as a servant.
What is amazing about this story is that the father had never stopped hoping for the return of this child. When he spotted his son a great distance from home, he ran towards him and hugged him. The love this father had for his son did not diminish since the day the inheritance was divided. There was no grudge, no punishment, in fact, the father even instantaneously presented his best to his long-lost son.
This is the heart of our Father. He loves each and every one of us so dearly that he longs for us to repent and return to Him. Regardless of what wrongs we have done, He is eagerly yearning to forgive us and embrace us back into his family as His child. But he never forces, he never imposes. He gives us freewill to choose for ourselves, even though it grieves Him when we choose to go our own way and squander away what He has given us. Although He has many children, every single one of us is dear to Him and He searches out for us and rejoices greatly when another soul is saved.
Do we have the same heart like our Heavenly Father for the lost? If saving one lost soul is so important to God, should it not matter to us, too? Will you speak to someone so that he or she so they can once again be called a child of God and return to the arms of the Father and be saved for eternity? Therefore, let us feel love for the unsaved with the same heart as our Heavenly Father and share the gospel today.
Sermon Series: Evangelism
