Day 109

Coming to Their Senses

"That brought him to his senses" Luke 15:17a.

We want our prodigal's to come to their senses quickly don't we?  Like the Prodigal Son's story as written in the Message version, "That brought him to his senses", or in the New King James Version it says, "When he came to himself".  Oh, don't we long to see them come to themselves, to get it once and for all,  to see what we see, to come out of the pigpen, to come home to the Father?

Go back to the beginning of the story where it says: "The younger son said to the Father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me'.  Isn't that the way we all are----we want it our way.  We want what we think we deserve.  It's all about self.  We can not see things clearly, we are blind.

John MacArthur says it this way, "When his incessant sinning had left him utterly bankrupt and hungry, he was able to think more clearly.  Then he was ready to be saved".  Not until he had nothing and no where to go did he think clearly.  Oh man, my Father's servant's are living better than I am.

This speaks volumes when we discuss letting go and letting God work.  Not attempting to rescue but letting them live in the pigpen of sin until they are able to think more clearly.  Sometimes no matter how much we talk, rescue or beg, they can't see clearly.  They must live in the pigpen for who knows how long before they will see.  We can get them out of the pen, take them home, clean them up, send them to rehab, and yet they often return because they haven't been left till they are hungry and bankrupt.

As you see, the Father stood watching for the son but did not go out looking for him.  He prayed to see him at the top of the hill headed home but the Father did not go out searching for him, unlike myself.

Then when he saw him coming he didn't ask all kinds of questions, he didn't demand he live a certain way, he didn't heap blame or shame on him, or look down on his appearance, he threw his arms around him and accepted him just as he was.  So no matter how many times we read the story we learn another truth.  Reread it today in different versions and see how God speaks to you through it.