Are You Lost? Remember whose You Are and Return!

"And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

"I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

"And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants." (Luke 15:17-18)

When did the Prodigal son decide to go back to his father? When he "came to himself", when he remembered who he was: the son of a well-off and prosperous father.

Even when he was rehearsing his conciliatory speech, the wayward son who had wasted all of his substance prepared to address the man whom he had scorned as good as dead as "Father."

Under the Old Covenant, a disrespectful youth would meet a terrible fate:

"If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:

"Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;

"And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.

"And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear." (Deuteronomy 21: 18-21)

Certainly, the young prodigal must have been familiar with this damning code in the Law, yet he had a greater faith in the goodness of his father, and so we should see our heavenly Father in the same light:

"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" (Romans 2: 4)

Every believer in Jesus Christ is a son of God:

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."" "(Romans 8: 15-17)

Because we are now in this world just like God's Beloved Son (1 John 4: 17), we can boldly enter into the throne of grace (Hebrews 4: 16), knowing that our conscience has been sprinkled from dead works (Hebrews 9: 14), meaning that we do not  have to do or owe God anything to merit an audience with Him.

It is the Lord who restores our soul (Psalm 23: 3), who calls us to be with Him (John 6: 63) No matter how lost, how bad you think that you have a been, simply remember who you are in Christ (1 John 3: 3) and return to your Father -- He is waiting for you with open arms and with all that you need!