Walking With Jesus

Sometimes when God wants to use us, He has to place us through undesirable situations.  Sometimes He has to break us away from our pride and arrogance, and that breaking process can be very painful for us.  Sometimes God has to bring the reality of our sinful fleshly nature to our attention.   A good example of how one can come to the end of him or herself is in the parable Jesus told of the lost son.

In the parable Jesus told about the son who went astray from his father in Luke 15: 11-32.  The lost son came to himself and he realized he had nothing. He had reached bottom.   He was hungry.  He was living in an awful condition.   His father had everything he needed, a warm bed, plenty of food and clothes.  There he was among pigs living in abject poverty and his father was wealthy.  He started to think, to reflect on his life at home in his father’s house.  There was plenty of food at home and here he was starving.  He made a decision.  He said,  “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him ….”  He rehearsed in his head what he will tell his father.  “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you …”.  He recognized that he had sinned against God.  David came to that recognition in Psalms 51:4:  Against You and You only have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight.” 

All sin that we commit is against God.  He sinned against God and in the presence of his father.  His father would see the tell-tale signs of his wild living - his thin frame, his ragged, dirty and smelly clothing.  He made a move.  He got up and went to his father.  He repented of his riotous living, and he received his father’s forgiveness.  If he had stayed in the pig pen he would never experience his father’s forgiveness.  He would never again enjoy the wealth of his father’s home. 

It took courage for the lost son to return home.  It took humility and he did not shrink away from returning home.  He had left with a bag of clothes, all of his treasured possessions and a wallet full of money.  He went out walking with a swag no doubt, with confidence and a high opinion of himself.  He went out feeling on top of the world.  No doubt he felt the world was before him, and he was ready to conquer.  He was ready to experience life at its fullest.   Now he was returning in rags and looking a mess.

The important point here is that he arose.  He got up out of his misery and he returned to his father.  He did not allow pride to keep him in his misery.  His thought was on restoration, not on what his brother would say – and he did have quite a bit to say.

 

God is holy.  God is righteous.  God is the standard for holy living.  If we desire to be used of God, we have to see ourselves as helpless and vulnerable to sin.  We have to come to that same place as the lost son.   Sometimes in order for God to take us to another level in our walk with Him, He has to expose our heart to us and sometimes to others.  When we see our heart and recognize what our flesh is capable of doing or have done.  It blows our minds, we cannot believe we would do such an act or say such a thing.  All we can do is to fall at His feet in repentance.  Then God can use us to His glory.

Let us not be afraid to rise and walk those steps of repentance toward our heavenly Father.  If we stay as we are, we will never receive His forgiveness.  Neither will we experience the wealth of our God and the opportunities He has in store for us.