SATURDAY, JULY 22
Luke 15:11-32
Luke 15:18

"I will arise and go to my father…"

STOP LIVING IN SIN AS A HABIT (3)

God’s true children may sometimes backslide into worldliness due to the appealing attractions and strong seductions of the world with its worldly values and pleasures like "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). They have not known much about their heavenly Father and their Saviour Jesus Christ! Therefore, when tempted and drawn to the world, they may stop going to church or reading God’s Word for a while or for years, but like the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15, they cannot find true happiness and satisfaction from the world. In the end, unable to bear with their empty, wretched and miserable worldly life any more, they will remember God their Father and their Saviour Jesus Christ, and decide to return home. Once they are in their Father’s home again, they will appreciate their heavenly Father’s presence and loving care as well as their Saviour’s grace and prayer for them, and they will never want to leave their Father’s home again. They are able to say like Paul: "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Phil 3:8).

Many may think that they are born again and can backslide. They may think that they can always return to their Father. But later if they leave Him again, it means that they have not truly returned to God the Father Himself. They have merely returned to a church! The parable in Luke 15 speaks of the grace and love of God, and the prodigal son can be applied to both the believer and the unbeliever. For the born-again believer, he used to be in his Father’s house and has tasted of His goodness, but has left Him. Later, as he remembered his Father and His goodness, he stood up and knew the way back home. For the unbeliever, because of the grace and love of God, God will receive him when he genuinely receives Jesus as his Lord and Saviour, and repents of his sins.

THOUGHT: Am I backsliding, going away from God the Father?
PRAYER: My Father, I thank Thee for Thy warm welcome home!