God is Always at Work (episode 20)

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Do you love a prodigal? Do you feel like you are lost in a scary and endless wilderness?

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Welcome to the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. I am Judy Douglass and I spent more than 15

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years in that wilderness. I believe together we will discover help and hope for your journey.

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He's building his testimony. My friend Diane was a faithful prayer warrior on behalf of

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our son. I used to pass her on the way to my office and she always asked how he was

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doing. On the days that there was more bad choices and more reasons to despair, she often

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responded, he's building his testimony. With those words, God kept reminding me of this

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important truth from Jesus. My father is always at his work to this very day and I too am

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working. When our loved one is doing destructive things, whether from childish thinking, lack

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of thinking, trauma response, gratifying the flesh, evil intent, or from just being foolish,

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our tendency is often to sigh or cry or despair. Yet God is at work even in all this. He is

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at work in our prodigals. He is at work in these circumstances and he is at work in us.

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I hope you're hearing this. I've said it over and over. This is not just about your

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loved one who's making bad choices. Even as God works on them, he's always working

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on us as well out of his love and grace. One of my favorite verses assures me that God

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was intentional when he made each one of us, including our loved ones, designing us perfectly

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for the plans he has created for us. Ephesians 2 10 says, we are God's workmanship created

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in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. The word

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workmanship has been translated handy work, but it should be work of art or a masterpiece.

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You are God's masterpiece. Is that what you said when you looked in the mirror this

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morning? Work of art and your prodigal? Can you look at them and call them a work of art,

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a masterpiece? Often I take comfort in this promise for myself and for my prodigal. Being

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confident of this, that he, God, who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion

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until the day of Christ Jesus. I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with David the Psalmist.

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The Lord will accomplish what concerns me, you, your prodigal. Your loving kindness,

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O Lord, is everlasting. Do not forsake the work of your hands. God will use choices,

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even poor ones, and circumstances to accomplish what he began in each of us, building a testimony

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for future good works as he has been doing in our prodigals. Job, just before the end

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of his ordeal, understood, I know, Lord, that you can do all things and that no purpose

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of yours can be thwarted. Don't you love that? No purpose of yours can be thwarted.

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Not long ago, I reread Heinz's feat on high places, an allegory, the story of little Much

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Afraid and her journey to the high places to live with the Good Shepherd. It was a challenging

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journey. During a particularly difficult time, when Much Afraid spent her days making her

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way through a dense fog, she despaired that the Shepherd had abandoned her and she felt

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she would never find her way. When the Shepherd came to her and she asked him why she was

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lost in the fog, he replied, I am working in ways you cannot see. Oh, how true that

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is for us as we live in the fog of our prodigal's delinquency. How many times have you held

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on to this next promise? And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those

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who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Then, from my favorite prophet,

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Isaiah, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things which have

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not been done, saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.

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I love to hold on to those kind of promises of who God is and what he's like, what he's

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able to do and what he will do. In other words, God knew what he was doing when he created

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your loved one. He knows what he's doing now and he is continuing to accomplish his

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good purposes in and through that life. Yes, and in our own lives as well. Let's go back

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to the beginning. That is, the beginning of this episode or the beginning of your waiting

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with your loved one or the beginning of time. For, of course, with God, there is no beginning

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or ending. He is the great I Am. God said to Moses, I am who I am. He is the before

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and the after, the Alpha and the Omega, who is, who was, who is to come. He's the Almighty.

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As we struggle with time, with waiting, with the seemingly endless pain, with giving up

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hope, which is looking to the future, it is good to remember that though God created time,

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he does not live in time. He lives in eternity, but he also lives in the present, in the now.

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Again, his name is I Am. That's present tense. He calls us to live in the present,

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which is where we find God. When we dwell in the past, we relive fear, uncertainty,

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failure, pain, or if the past held better times, we hold on to them wishing they would

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return. If we dwell in the future, we dream, project, we hope, which are not bad things,

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but we can't know the future and we certainly can't control it. God calls us to live in

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the present, which is all that we really have. And he is there with us. He tells us in Matthew,

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I am with you always. And God assures us through David that our times are in God's hands.

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It's true for those of us who love Prodigals and it is true for those Prodigals that we

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love. Their times are in his hands and we can rest in that. And we can keep praying

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for though we live in the present time, get this, our prayers live beyond us. Mark Patterson

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writes in his book, Draw the Circle, our prayers never die. When we pray, our prayers exit

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the four dimensions of space and time that we live in. They have no space or time limitations

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because the God who answers them exists outside of our four dimensions that he created. You

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never know when his timeless answer will re-enter the atmosphere of our lives and that should

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fill us with holy anticipation. Never underestimate his ability to answer anytime, anyplace, anyhow.

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He has infinite answers to our finite prayers. Patterson goes on to recount stories from

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his own life and others' lives, of prayers answered years, even decades later, sometimes

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well after the passing of the prayer warrior. Our God hears our prayers. He treasures them.

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Your prayers, we read in Acts, have come up as a memorial offering before God. Did you

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hear that? In Revelation, we see it again. And when he took the scroll, the four living

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beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and they

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held golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God's people. So your

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prayers and my prayers for our prodigals, for those we love, for ourselves to know how

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to love them better, they're coming as a wonderful fragrance to the Lord. They are

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the incense that greets God at the Revelation at the throne of God. What a treasure our

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prayers are to God. And he answers them. Isaiah 60, we read before, in its time I will do

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this swiftly. We can hold onto this promise from our God, who is before and after time,

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but who dwells with us in the present. And God is able to bless you abundantly so that

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in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

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Take courage from David's words on waiting with hope. I remain confident of this. I will

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see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and

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take heart and wait for the Lord. Because I know who God is and what he is like, and

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because I understand that he operates in time, even though he lives beyond time, I can wait

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and hope. I can in my heart bind together the difficult present with the hopeful future

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in this world of God's involvement and goodness. I can live in the light of God. I will eagerly

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anticipate what he will do. I will wait with hope.

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Here's something to think about. When has God worked in ways you could not see at the

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time, but later realized what he had been doing? How does that experience give you hope

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for your prodigal? Here's something you could do. What can you tell yourself right now to

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help you keep your focus on the present where God is living with you? God bless you.

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Thank you for joining me today on the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. If you enjoyed

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today's episode, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple podcasts or wherever

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you listen. Your review helps the show reach more people with the hope and encouragement

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of Jesus. Don't forget, take a look at the show notes. And for more helpful information,

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resources, and books, check out judydouglass.com. That's Douglass with two S's. You can find

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me on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram at JudyDouglass417. Until next week.