The Father’s Heart
How much love do you have for sinners? That may sound like a strange question, but it is one we Christians need to consider and seriously think about.
All too often, once we get saved and get our lives cleaned up a little bit, we lose our compassion for those who are still lost. We look at the drunk stumbling down the street or the guy at the office who is lewd and lies to the boss and we turn up our spiritual noses.
Nonetheless, if we ever truly understood the heart of our Heavenly Father, we would never do that again. Jesus told a story that can give us a glimpse of that heart. It is the story about the prodigal son.
We have all probably heard it many times, how the son rebelled and dishonored his father, and how the father, in spite of it all, received him home with joy when he repented. However, there is one phrase in it I want to draw your attention to today. It is this one: “But while he [the prodigal son] was still a long way off, his father saw him.”
That phrase gives such a moving glimpse of the heart of that loving father. It tells us that even before his boy had repented, even during those long days when he was up to his eyebrows in sin, that father was watching for him, longing for him to come home.
Every morning he scanned the horizon, hoping to see the silhouette of his returning son, and the last thing every night, he would look again… straining his eyes in hope. His son was constantly on his mind, and his heart was always full of love for him. The kind of gut-wrenching love that, on the day his son came home, drove that father to run to him and kiss him.
20So he got up and came to his [own] father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness [for him]; and he ran and embraced him and kissed him [fervently].
That is the kind of heart our Heavenly Father has for those who are lost. It is the kind of heart He had for us while we were still wandering in the world. It is the kind of heart that embraced us with open arms even when we were still covered with the grime of sin, and it is the kind of heart we must have as Christians.
In summary, there is an entire world full of weary people out there who have not yet found the embrace that comes from the Father’s heart. They are more than just sinners. They are our potential brothers and sisters — lost ones in desperate need of a loving Heavenly Father. God forbid we should ever turn up our spiritual noses at them. Instead, may God help us to start bringing them home.
God Bless!
“Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible”
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