ICS Daily Devotions
Backsliders, Return to the Father
Luke 15:21 And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son [I no longer deserve to be recognized as a son of yours]!
One major thing that sin does is it distances us from God and condemns us as unworthy; truly out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The prodigal son was full of remorse and condemnation, therefore he felt that he wasn’t worthy to be received back into the home as a son nor even be recognized. The devil, sin, and our conscience can lead us into thinking negatively.
It is the result of sin that causes us to feel that we do not measure up to God’s standard and acceptance. Before we accepted Christ, sin caused us to be separated from God or distanced us from God.
We are not to tell a sinner that he is a sinner. He knows it deep within his heart that he is wrong. A sinner feels entangled emotionally, confused, disillusioned and has mixed feelings within; he doesn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. He is lost! He has lost his ways! He doesn’t know whether God or the people will receive Him again!
In the Father’s heart, money and properties that were being lost and squandered away are not important! These material things are temporal but the soul or the life of the son is priceless and what matters to God the most is our life!
What preoccupied the mind of the Heavenly Father is whether men will choose His path of restoration through Christ’s blood! He doesn’t think so much about all our wrong that is being done because all has been dealt with on the cross of Calvary.
What matters most is our decision! Therefore, when the prodigal son returned from his wayward ways, what seems to be a natural reaction to punish him didn’t happen. Our thinking was a conditional kind of love but God’s thinking was unconditional. A time of celebration and restoration was carried out instead because this is truly the heart of the father. God wants a restored relationship with His lost children.
God loves the world so much that everyone who lives in this world is greatly loved and cherished by Him. What man values as important and valuable is shortsighted and temporal. God values the life of men, men’s eternity, and their ability to spend eternity with Him. God pursued men to save them from eternal damnation.
God went through the process of restoring us by making the first sacrifice for Adam and Eve, thereafter made clothes with animal skin. He cut a covenant with Abraham so as to send a Messiah through Abraham’s lineage. He had to show man His holiness and righteousness through the law and sacrificial system. This pushed them to search and wait for the Messiah. Jesus the Messiah came, was made sin and became a curse for us.
Jesus went up to the heavenly tabernacle to offer the ultimate sacrifice for sin once and for all; He made a way for people to return to God through His Just, Righteous, and Holy way! Truly, Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life.
Therefore, we as a body of Christ need to make sure those who are lost or have distanced themselves away from God to feel that they are most welcome in our midst because this is the heart of the Father.
Sermon Series: Receiving God’s Love and Blessings
