All I Want for Christmas, episode 44 (rebroadcast)

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Today, on When You Love a Prodigal, you will gain freedom to ask God and your prodigal

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for gifts that you really want.

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If you have a prodigal, you can discover, help, and hope for your wilderness journey

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right here at When You Love a Prodigal, and also help and hope for your own life journey.

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As you listen, be thinking about the gifts that you most desire.

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Name them.

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Make a list.

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Not for Santa, but to give to God.

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These are gifts you want and gifts you'd like to happen with your prodigal.

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All I want for Christmas is the return of my prodigal.

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Perhaps you have said or prayed those words.

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I know I did many times.

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You've said, Lord, please, for Christmas, could my child come home?

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Would you set him free from his addictions?

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Could you cause her to quit cutting herself?

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May they see the emptiness and destructiveness of their choices.

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And Lord, may we have peace in our family for Christmas.

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I have asked for just such gifts from God on many Christmases, and probably you have

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as well.

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I have also asked my wanderer for such gifts.

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My prodigal seldom had money to buy Christmas gifts, so sometimes I would just buy myself

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something I wanted and give it to him to give to me.

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But that didn't seem genuine.

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So in greater honesty, I began to say, Josh, all I want for Christmas is something I hoped

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would happen in his life.

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And over the years, I have requested some very special gifts from him.

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And so let's look at those, and I bet you would have the same desire from your prodigal.

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The first would be that he would know Jesus.

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He didn't for a while.

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And surely, the first time I said all I want for Christmas, I said, is for you, Josh, to

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know Jesus.

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I was confident that knowing Jesus would begin to bring the new life and new desires and

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new purposes and choices for him.

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And on that June 2nd, when he met Jesus, it set him on a new journey.

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But he found it challenging to stay on that path, and his walk with God was truly a rollercoaster.

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A second gift that I asked for from our son was to say, I love you.

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Probably this request was to tell me he loved me because he wasn't able to say that.

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He grew up with this birth mom until he was eight, and though those were tumultuous and

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dangerous years for him, he was loyal to her.

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And when I became his legal mother, he couldn't call me mom or mother or anything except Judy

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or even consider loving me.

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He didn't want to betray his birth mom, his real mom.

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But over the years, he came alive.

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He was born in my heart as my son, not just the boy that God had sent us to care for.

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And I fell in love with this kid.

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I wished he could grow to learn to love me in return.

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It took him a dozen years at least to be able to give me that gift, first on a Mother's

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Day card and then on a phone call.

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Now he gives me that gift almost daily with I love you texts or calls even.

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And it's been a really sweet thing to have received that gift, but it was a long, long

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wait for him to be able to give it.

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Making better choices.

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Yeah, I know you can identify with this.

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A third gift I asked for was I want you to make choices that lead to life and not death

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because surely many of the choices that he was making over these many years would lead

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to bad consequences in his life.

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But even death, he was in danger plenty of times.

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I wanted him to choose friends who would be positive in his life, to abandon his drugs

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and drinking, to begin to drive with care.

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I could tell you a few accident stories.

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To respect the girls he dated.

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This was a pretty big ask and it didn't happen very quickly, but slowly, one by one, these

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gifts were given.

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Sometimes he came to his senses and made better choices.

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Other times God intervened in miraculous ways for which I was so grateful.

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A fourth prayer or request that I had was that he would surrender to God.

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Most recently I asked him to really surrender his whole life to Jesus.

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He's come so far.

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Previous gifts that I've requested and given have brought him to a much better place than

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he was for many years.

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He's become hardworking, responsible, sober.

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He's been sober for almost eight years.

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He is good and kind.

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He has a wonderful wife and very special daughters.

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For these I rejoice and am so grateful.

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Yet I believe God still has greater work to do in him and through him.

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He does in me, so of course he would in him.

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I don't know what that's going to look like and we can't know.

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We don't know what God's got planned, but we can at least ask for what's in our hearts,

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what we desire.

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I urge him as I implore myself, my other children and those I work with, anybody that I have

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influence with, don't settle for less than God's best.

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That will happen as he surrenders his will to God, as he commits to God's way and not

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his own, as he chooses day by day to walk in that way.

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He assures me he is given that gift and he asks me to be patient for the work God is

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doing in his life.

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Of course, even as I have requested these gifts, I know it has taken God working in

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him to produce them.

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So I ask him, but I also ask God, the giver of very good gifts.

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God hears my requests and he has very good responses.

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The same is true for you.

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He knows the yearnings of your heart.

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He knows exactly what you want for Christmas, whether it's something personal in your life

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or whether it has to do with the prodigal in your life.

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And he is so willing for you to ask, to be honest, to cry out.

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We don't have to pretend and just ask for what we think God wants us to ask for.

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We can ask for what we think God wants, but we also need to ask for what's in our heart

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and in our mind and be completely honest with him.

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He's willing for us to cry out to him.

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And I know I've done that many times for my prodigal and I know you have too.

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Don't be afraid to tell God how your heart aches about your fears for your loved ones,

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about your concerns for your other children.

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Sometimes the choices of a prodigal are really dangerous for our other children.

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And certainly don't be afraid to tell him how overwhelmed you feel at this time that

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it's supposed to be for celebrating the birth of our Savior and yet all we can think about

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is the struggles and the pain and what's going to happen and when will it blow up and will

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they even be there to be with us.

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At the same time that you're asking, remember that his answers almost always look different

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than what we're thinking.

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And they have very much later timing than our requests.

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I don't think – I've seen God do sudden miracles, but they usually were not things

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I was asking for.

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He has a different timetable than we do and he knows what's best.

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We can't really always understand what he's doing.

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He tells us so.

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His ways are above ours.

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We can only see with little microscopes almost.

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He's got the whole big picture for each one of us and somehow he works all that together.

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Scripture tells us repeatedly that he knows and understands and is filled with compassion

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for our pain.

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He has given us so many wonderful promises that enable us to express our love for and

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trust in him and see his faithful responses.

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Just listen as I read these words from God.

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Meditate on them.

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Let God speak to you.

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In Matthew 6, a familiar verse, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all

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these things will be given to you as well.

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In Philippians we learn, do not be anxious about anything.

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Now is that a hard command?

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There's so many things when you love a prodigal to be anxious about.

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But he says don't be anxious, but in every situation by prayer and petition, begging

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God if you need to, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

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And you know what he says?

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He doesn't say, and I'll give you just what you asked for.

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He says the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and

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your minds in Christ Jesus.

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So he says come.

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Be honest.

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Bring it all to me.

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Lay it out.

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Make your requests with thanksgiving because you know that he's trustworthy.

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And he will do what will give you peace in this situation.

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He says more about peace in John.

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Jesus himself says, peace I leave with you.

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My peace I give you.

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I do not give you as the world gives you.

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Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

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I don't know about you, but those are words I have needed many times to hear.

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Don't be afraid.

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Trust me, God says.

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He says and I'm going to give you peace in your heart.

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He also says in Matthew, Jesus does, which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give

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him a stone or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake.

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If I gave Josh a snake, he'd probably be happy.

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He likes snakes, but I wouldn't be touching it.

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So that's not going to happen.

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So then Jesus says, if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your

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children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?

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In our session last week, in the podcast last week, we talked about the kinds of gifts to

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give to our children that will actually enhance their lives as well as make them happy.

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But God gives even better gifts than we do.

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Jesus says again in Matthew, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will

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give you rest.

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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will

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find rest for your souls.

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When you're moving into a major holiday with the potential disasters that can happen when

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you have a prodigal in your family, it's hard to be at rest.

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And Jesus says, put those burdens on me.

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Take my yoke instead.

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It's easy and light because I'm gentle and humble in heart.

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He says there will be rest for your souls.

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So for this Christmas, I join you in asking God for miracles in the lives of our prodigals,

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that your loved one will surprise you with a gift that is exactly what you want from

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him or her.

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But I also ask that he will help you and me to seek him first and enable us to experience

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his peace and freedom from fear and deep rest in him.

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As we close, would you take that gift or those gifts on your list, the things you're asking

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God for or the things that you have a list for what you would like from your loved one,

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and I'd like you to just take those and open your hands and offer those requests to God.

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He knows exactly what to do with them.

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And when a few minutes or hours or days later, you find you've taken them back with fear,

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disappointment, resentment, because neither God nor your loved one seems to be answering

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your requests, open your hands again, loosening your desires to God's kind and generous hands.

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May his blessings overflow you this Christmas season.

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May you see him answering requests beyond what you asked in different ways that you

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asked and giving you freedom in your spirit and peace in your heart and mind and rest

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in your soul.

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God bless you.