Heavenly Father I praise You for the sermon series my church is in on looking at all the angles of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In the truest sense, all of us have been prodigals in our life, because Your word says all have sinned and come short of the glory of You. I praise You for the love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy You have demonstrated in my life and the confidence You have in me to do the same.
Holy Spirit Christ told us in the parable of the Prodigal Son, “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” [Luke 15:20] The Father did not know if the son had changed his attitude, was seeking forgiveness, or anything at this point. All he knew was his son was heading home. Help me to see people who are looking and coming towards You so that I can demonstrate Your love, and eventually Your forgiveness, grace, and mercy. Let me not stand back and wait, or be judgmental but step forward and meet them as they come. Let me fully appreciate that love will win the day and that I need to be full of Your love so I can love others correctly. After all, Christ bore the cross for me, the least I can do is live a life of love and forgiveness.
Praise be to You, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose me in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined me to be adopted as his son through Jesus, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has freely given me in the One he loves. In Him I have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on me with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to me the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In Him I was also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that I, who has the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And I also was included in Christ when I heard the word of truth, the gospel of my salvation. Having believed, I am marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing my inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. [Ephesians 1:3-14; Galatians 1:3-5]