Returning to our comparison of the parable of the prodigal son that Jesus shared with those listening to His message, I wonder if He had this very verse in mind as He developed His story of forgiveness, for the parable follows the steps of returning to God exactly how this week's verse lays them out.
Our verse describes those being addressed as, "My people, who are called by My name." In the parable, the son had left his father's home to travel to a distant country, but no matter how far away he traveled or how much distance was created between him and his father, he would have always carried with him his father's name. In that foreign land, his identity was grounded in his family's name and he never forgot who he truly was, his father's son.
We are in a distant country as well....we are not at home. Peter describes believers in this way,
Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you. 1 Peter 2:10-11
We are God's people, we are aliens and temporary residents on this earth, we carry His name as believers in His Son, we are called "Christians." We should always remember who we are and who's we are. And just as Peter exhorts us, even though we are not at home, we are not to adopt the ways of the land in which we are living. We are to abstain from the ways of disobedience in which we are immersed while living in our land of separation from God, just as the prodigal could have chosen to exhibit the life patterns of his father's teaching rather than those exhibited by the people living in the distant country he found himself in.
Rather than having to return to obedience to our Father, let's make it our goal to never leave lives of obedience. Let's remember that we are our Father's children, that we have a Father who cares about us, and that our Father's commands and teachings that He has given to us will lead us to lives of godly abundance and peacefulness...and leading us finally to our real home where we will enjoy eternal life in our Father's home forever.
Our verse describes those being addressed as, "My people, who are called by My name." In the parable, the son had left his father's home to travel to a distant country, but no matter how far away he traveled or how much distance was created between him and his father, he would have always carried with him his father's name. In that foreign land, his identity was grounded in his family's name and he never forgot who he truly was, his father's son.
We are in a distant country as well....we are not at home. Peter describes believers in this way,
Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you. 1 Peter 2:10-11
We are God's people, we are aliens and temporary residents on this earth, we carry His name as believers in His Son, we are called "Christians." We should always remember who we are and who's we are. And just as Peter exhorts us, even though we are not at home, we are not to adopt the ways of the land in which we are living. We are to abstain from the ways of disobedience in which we are immersed while living in our land of separation from God, just as the prodigal could have chosen to exhibit the life patterns of his father's teaching rather than those exhibited by the people living in the distant country he found himself in.
Rather than having to return to obedience to our Father, let's make it our goal to never leave lives of obedience. Let's remember that we are our Father's children, that we have a Father who cares about us, and that our Father's commands and teachings that He has given to us will lead us to lives of godly abundance and peacefulness...and leading us finally to our real home where we will enjoy eternal life in our Father's home forever.
3 comments:
I'm attempting to leave a comment myself as I'm convinced there must be some problem with the comment process since my faithful commenter, Donna, is the only one who ever comments on the blog entries. Let's see how hard this is....I'm commenting with an "Anonymous" profile to see how that works!
Nope - not hard! Now let's get some comments going on --- I would really LOVE to hear from others. I am always so encouraged by Donna's comments. She always adds another view or insight that I appreciate. (Again, posting through Anonymous profile --- VERY easy!)
I just lost a long, drawn-out response, attempting to catch up since I had missed a couple of days and a new post was not available this morning. I touched something on this iPad, and I lost my response. I can't remember all of it. It was quite lengthy and wordy. I was up on time today, meditated with God, meditated about this scripture, wrote. Well now, running out of time and am not certain of all that I wrote.
This scripture, God's Word, tells us to humbly go to Him in prayer. Sometimes
we are so proud of ourselves, we have accomplished x,y,z this day. But, it is only because of the Grace of God, His love and Power that we were able to complete our tasks. We are to be humble, realizing we accomplished all of those stops, errands, completed our day -- because God was with us and the Glory is to be with God not ourselves, humble ourselves in front of God. Acknowledge Him in all that we do. He will hear us and know we have come to Him in prayer, humbled by His Power. He will heal our pain, restore our empty hearts and souls. We face the Holy Spirit within us. Turn away from all of the evil we encounter each day, all of the interactions with others throughout our day. God hears our
prayers. I can only pray for our "land", our country, our city, our county, our state.
My part is to reach out to God, reach out to my fellow man, - reach out in
Christian Love and Forgiveness.
God will bless our drought stricken land in His own time, according to His Will. God heals the sick, the wounded - the emptiness. He gives us eternal life - we are healed, we are restored. We are Forgiven. (see I told you it was wordy, you should have read the first one-).
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