The Prodigal Son by Matt CarterSample

Day 7: The Speech

As the prodigal continues on the road home, let’s deal with some of the barriers we build up in our minds and hearts that keep us from coming home to God, where we can be unhindered by guilt and shame.

Notice how Jesus describes the prodigals goal. Jesus could’ve said he arose and came “home” or He could’ve said he arose and came “to his village,” but He didn’t. Jesus said the prodigal “arose and came to his father.” That phrase is intentional. His father was home to him, just as for all children of God— our heavenly Father is home to us. 

For a child of God, no person or place in the entire world can ever be home except in fellowship with God. There are two barriers that keep children of God from going back home. The first barrier is taking sin too seriously. According to Romans, our sin is never too much or too great for God to overcome. His grace is always greater than our sin. His resolve to save is never compromised. 

The second barrier is that we do not take sin seriously enough. Sin is not a mistake to be swept under the rug, it’s rebellion against God. We can never take our sin too lightly. Jesus said the path to blessing and happiness is found when we mourn our sin and the sin in the world around us.

As we pick up our story again, the prodigal's sin has left him impoverished. He’s prepared a speech to beg his father’s forgiveness, and he’s finally stepped out of the pigpen and taken those first steps to return home. Many prodigals fear returning home because they fail to understand the inexhaustible love God has for them. Far more Christians than we realize spend time asking questions like, “How could God love somebody that keeps failing Him?” 

Doubting God’s love for us originates from a false belief that our sin is greater than God’s love for us. Consider this example; you sin and step outside the bounds of God’s best for your life, but instead of turning back to God, you continue to rebel. You continue to stray from God, not because you want to continue sinning, but because you believe your failure has caused an irreparable breach in your relationship. 

Thankfully, God is not like us; there will never be an uncorrectable breach in our relationship with Him because it's simply not possible to out sin God’s love for us. God takes away our sin and uses all of our experiences—including our failures—to bring us closer to Himself.

Consider this question: What sin do you need to hand to Jesus and receive His forgiveness for?