I’m reading a book now called ‘Unbound – A Practical Guide to Deliverance’. There is a section I wanted to share. Its titled ‘Consider the Older Brother’ and It talks about the story of the Prodigal Son. In the past I only thought of the prodigal son – as I can relate to him. But there are other characters in the story. There is the father – some prefer to call this parable the Parable of the Loving Father, and there is the older brother. Anyways in this book I’m reading the author says he came to a point in his life when he realized that the older brother was an important character in the parable. He writes in the book to imagine the scene of the prodigal returning to the father’s house and meeting the older brother instead. What would have happened? Would he have ever made it home to his father? What would happen today if the prodigals came home and met the older brother in us? I’be been reflecting on that for several days now. The older brother dutifully served his father – but his heart had grown cold. He did not have love in him. His steadfast commitment to his duties left him feeling entitled – not an easy place to receive Gods grace. In fact when the celebration was going on with the fattened calf he would not enter his fathers house and his father had to come out and talk to him. Just think about that – the older son was missing out on the celebration in his fathers house because he would not forgive. I think I have at times been the prodigal son, and at other times been the older brother – probably more often the older brother. This book has as one of its themes the idea that you cannot accept Gods forgiveness if you cannot forgive others. It has to flow through you in effect. I think this is perhaps linked to the idea in AA that at some point you need to sponsor someone else – or you are likely to backslide. Christ knew this I think when he calls us to evangelize – it wasn’t just necessary to advance his Kingdom – he knew we needed it. We can’t just be receptacles – we need to be conduits of Gods love. I think the hard part is finding the area’s that you have blind spots. It’s easy for me to concentrate on the parts of my faith that come easy, and ignore the area’s that make me uncomfortable. I struggle with forgiveness a lot. I can’t seem to forgive myself, I find it hard to believe I deserve Gods forgiveness – and that spills over into my relationships with others. But God has revealed this to me so I have hope that this can change. Just Patricks thought of the day.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 21:23:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015