The Prodigal Son

What would you do if you ran a business with your friend, then one day they took their

share of the money and just left? You probably wouldn’t trust them again. I’m not saying

that you SHOULD trust your friends after they take your money (Uh, you probably

shouldn’t be friends with them if they’re doing that), but you shouldn’t reject them. That’s

not how God tells us to act, and it’s not how he acts either.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, you can always come back to God.

let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return

unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly

pardon.

- Isaiah 55:7

God loves us and doesn’t want to see us waste our lives away like the prodigal son did.

No matter what you’ve done, you can ALWAYS come back to him.

Now, don’t mistake love for weakness. God is just and MUST punish sin. So, people

can’t play the game of sin, ‘repent’, act okay for a little while, sin again. That’s not how it

works. The Israelites played this VERY tactic, and came very close to being left to

themselves.

Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.

-Judges 10

There is such thing as a ‘false-repentance’, and God won’t accept that.

Sometimes, however, you really have to be in a tuff spot to truly repent and turn back to

God.

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man

gave unto him. 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 15:16-19

But when you do come back to him, he WILL accept you.

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father

saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the

son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no

more worthy to be called thy son. 22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the

best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and

bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was

dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

-Luke 16: 20-24