All I have is yours
"Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours." (Luke 15:31) The greatest tragedy in the story of the prodigal son isn't that a boy considered his father better dead than alive and abandoned him. The tragedy is that of his older brother.
There was the older brother, laboring and sweating in the fields. With rough hands weathered by the use of farmers' tools and working years with the soil, he busily repaired the stone walls of the fields. Suddenly, he began to notice a melody and the sound of drums in the distance coming from his home. He rose and cautiously began to walk there perplexed "Who's partying at this hour?!" he thought. Reaching home, he finds out that this father had thrown a feast for his younger brother who had just returned. He looked on at all the dancing in shock... slowly the look of surprise would turn to anger and resentment. Hastily he turns around and storms out of the house. His father follows him and pleads with him. Yet he is in no mood to be placated. "All these many years I served you! I never disobeyed you in a single command and yet you never even gave me a little goat to throw a party with my friends. Yet when this rascal of my brother who wasted all you gave him on whores comes home, you go and kill the fatted calf on his behalf!"
The tragedy is here. This fellow didn't see himself as a beloved son of his father. He saw himself as a servant, his father as a master. His outburst was that of a manager who is angry with the owner of the company. Though this man was always dutifully at his father's side he couldn't have been farther from his heart! God's heart for you is to enjoy life, by His side - not to labor away for Him in the hot sun like a slave! Do you wonder why the first miracle of Jesus was to provide wine at a wedding feast whose stores of the drink had run out? The last miracle that Jesus did was to provide a fresh breakfast of fish, cooked over a camp fire on the beach of one of the most awesome lakes of the world... at sunrise! God loves life. He is life! He is all about "making merry", "music and dancing" like it says in this story.
It genuinely saddens me when those who believe in Jesus live out their lives as if God was their master. God is their Father but they can not see beyond the spirit of religion that blinds them and that tells them they are slaves and servants, laborers and workers. I'm not saying don't labor for God. I'm saying recognize your Father's heart! He is saying to you "My son, My daughter. All that is Mine... is yours! Come, sit with Me, tell Me your heart and I will tell you Mine. Come and rest. Rest My child. I know what is on your heart; to serve Me and do good in this world. But I tell you now, rest in what I have done for you - and you will not only delight Me so much and make Me glad, but you will also do even more than I did on earth... in the very midst of My rest!"
"For we who have believed do enter that rest..." Heb 4:5
By David Roiel |
| Photo courtesy of Flick: h.koppdelaney |
The tragedy is here. This fellow didn't see himself as a beloved son of his father. He saw himself as a servant, his father as a master. His outburst was that of a manager who is angry with the owner of the company. Though this man was always dutifully at his father's side he couldn't have been farther from his heart! God's heart for you is to enjoy life, by His side - not to labor away for Him in the hot sun like a slave! Do you wonder why the first miracle of Jesus was to provide wine at a wedding feast whose stores of the drink had run out? The last miracle that Jesus did was to provide a fresh breakfast of fish, cooked over a camp fire on the beach of one of the most awesome lakes of the world... at sunrise! God loves life. He is life! He is all about "making merry", "music and dancing" like it says in this story.
It genuinely saddens me when those who believe in Jesus live out their lives as if God was their master. God is their Father but they can not see beyond the spirit of religion that blinds them and that tells them they are slaves and servants, laborers and workers. I'm not saying don't labor for God. I'm saying recognize your Father's heart! He is saying to you "My son, My daughter. All that is Mine... is yours! Come, sit with Me, tell Me your heart and I will tell you Mine. Come and rest. Rest My child. I know what is on your heart; to serve Me and do good in this world. But I tell you now, rest in what I have done for you - and you will not only delight Me so much and make Me glad, but you will also do even more than I did on earth... in the very midst of My rest!"
"For we who have believed do enter that rest..." Heb 4:5
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