DAY 30: THE LOVE OF THE FATHER

PHRONESIS DEVOTIONAL

30 DAYS DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM

September 30, 2023.

Topic: THE LOVE OF THE FATHER

Bible Reading: Luke 15:11-32

Verse for Meditation: Romans 5:8 TPT

But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly.

The theme in Luke 15 is about ‘the parable of the lost’; the lost sheep (Lk. 15: 3-7), the lost coin (Lk. 15:8-10) and the lost son (Lk. 15:11-32). And all three stories reveal how the Trinity desires to bring people back through the Son, by the Spirit to the Father. The Son came as a Shepherd, seeking and sacrificing to find the lost sinner. The Spirit seeks the lost sinner like the woman searched with the light of illumination for the lost coin until she found it. And the Father welcomes the returning sinner back to His house. It is the work of the Trinity to bring us back to God.

The introduction to these parables was when the Pharisees and the scribes began to complain when they caught Jesus among the tax collectors and notorious sinners (Lk. 15:1-12). So the illustration of the two sons that Jesus used was representative of the two groups of people in the audience; the irreligious Jews and the religious Jewish leaders. Both groups were Jews.

From the story, you can tell that the younger son can be regarded to as the irreligious Jews. And mind you, both groups of people needed salvation. Thus, we can say that it was actually both sons that were lost, but all the while the focus was on the younger son whose heart is not hardened like the religious leaders (the older son). God wants all men to be saved (1Tim. 2:4), that is why He made salvation available to all men (Tit. 2:11). But not all men that are saved, because receiving God’s gift of eternal life is by choice. So also, going to hell is by choice and not God’s ultimate plan- God remains a loving God.

John 3:16 TPT

For here is the way God loved the world—he gave his only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life.

Looking at verse 12 of our Bible text culturally, it was a great offense for a son to ask his father for his inheritance in the Middle Eastern culture. It would be equivalent to saying, “I wish you were already dead!”That is an outright rebellion! And according to the Jewish Law, that young man deserves nothing but death (Deut. 21:17-23). Those Jewish leaders knew the Law, but Jesus’ statement was a plot twist. Instead of death, he went scot-free. And his father, giving him a share of his estate, showed that he figuratively died; he took ‘his death.’

This son then went to a distant country and spent all that he had there, and then a severe famine occurred. The famine came after he had nothing left, and instead of returning home, he hired himself out to one of the citizens of the country to feed his pigs. And the Bible says, “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.” (Lk. 15:16).

This is the work of the devil, to make us slaves to sin and find sin pleasurable. And if the famine had not occurred and he wasn’t refused the pig’s food, he wouldn’t have come to his sense to return home. So also, it is until we realise how helpless we are to save ourselves, we cannot journey to God for salvation.

When the son decided to return back home, he exercised some sort of faith that his father whom he had outrightly rebelled will accept him back. And yes, his father saw his act of faith from afar and ran to embrace him, and brought him home himself. That is grace! He did not get home himself, his father did. He only took a step of faith.

Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Mind you, this son was coming from a pig’s pen dressed as a beggar, yet his father embraced him like that. That is unconventional to what we’ve been taught about God. God does not keep a distance from us when we sin, instead He draws Himself closer to us so that we can obtain His mercy (Case Study: Adam in Genesis 3:7-10).

The son was clothed with the best robe; which speaks about the garment of righteousness (Zech. 3:4), so the son by implication was justified (declared righteous; not guilty). A ring was put in his finger as a seal of sonship and authority (Gen. 41:42). Culturally, this ring was an emblem of authority for the son to transact business in his father’s name. And that is a picture of the seal of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:14). Then sandals on his feet, by implication the message and the ministry of reconciliation (Eph. 6:5). All in one day! And that is our story.

If God could demonstrate His love towards us while we were yet sinner, He can do much more now that we are saved; He loves us much more. And tell others about this, on the mountaintop and on the valley.

PRAYER:

DEAR SPIRIT OF GOD, PLEASE HELP ME TO ALWAYS EMULATE YOUR LIFE OF LOVE FOR MY WORLD TO SEE. AMEN!

DECLARATION:

I WILL MAKE IT MY DUTY TO ALWAYS REVEAL THE MYSTERIES OF HIS LOVE.

Bible Reading Plan: 1 Corinthians 13; 1 John 5; Proverbs 31