Luk 15:29 So he
answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you;
I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a
young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
I know that I have written on the prodigal
son before but in this blog I really want to have a brief look at the older
brother in the story.
The father in the story represents our
Father in Heaven who allows everyone to make their own choices in life. God does not force people into submission but
rather loves them into health and wholeness.
I have been asking God for healing for
certain things (like a tooth that is dying) and I got to a point of
exasperation and it was in my heart and mouth to say, “but God I do this and I
do that, so You should do this”. I
realised afresh I was acting like the older brother, coming to God with
conditions and expecting His blessing.
The older son said to his father, “all this time, I have done everything
you ask but you did not....” The older
brother did not recognise the blessing he had from his father nor the fact that
it was all available for him to use. This kind of conditional thinking hardens
our heart toward our Father. It has
brought out feelings in me, that are lies, but nevertheless, in some way have
taken root in my heart, that God favours others above me (even though I do this
and that for Him).
The bible encourages us to not grow weary
in doing well. (2 Tim 3:13) We never see
Jesus using this kind of “emotional blackmail” on those He came into contact
with. He never said to His disciples,
after all I’ve done for you, after all I’ve given up for you..” His focus was never on Himself but purely on
those He came to touch regardless of their feelings towards Him.
Joh 2:24 But
Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,
Joh 2:25 and
had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.
His Love is totally unconditional towards
us. Even though He was scorned, mocked and treated with disdain on earth, “He
went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.”
(Act 10:38)
As hard as it is, we His children are
called to do the same. God is a God of
Love, yet He is also Holy. This doesn’t
mean that we are to blindly close our eyes to sin or that we have liberty to
sin more. Jesus was quite clear that we
are to be perfect like His Father in Heaven is perfect. Jesus warned of the consequences of living a
sinful life and encouraged those “to go and sin no more”.
So going back to my emotional blackmail
- God does desire to prosper, heal and
bless us. Can I promise that you will
seen His blessing and favour in your life?
I would say, “Yes”, but in God’s timing although I wonder how many times
we just don’t recognise His Hand in our lives, or worse forget what He has
done.
Hebrews tells us that many of the Old
Testament saints did not live to see the promises of God, yet they are rewarded
in heaven now and are the “cloud of witnesses” urging us onward and
upward. Great rewards are awaiting us in
the Heavenly realms both now in this time and in eternity.
No comments:
Post a Comment