The Love of God Lived Out (episode 28)

0:00 Do you love a prodigal? Do you feel like you are lost in a scary and endless wilderness? Welcome to the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. I am Judy Douglass, and I spent more than 15 years in that wilderness. I believe together we will discover help and hope for your journey. So how did you do this past week on learning to really believe that you can trust God because He's really God and He's really good? Well, today we're going to look at some other reason to trust God. Many years ago, I wrote a book called He Loves Me. The purpose was to explore whether or not I could consistently believe, trust that God loved me. The cover has a daisy on it. The first chapter begins with a list of antiphonal good and bad circumstances, figuratively pulling daisy petals with He loves me, He loves me not. How many times have We Who Love a Prodigal done just that? We rejoice in God's love, He loves me, when we see good progress with our loved ones. They're not drinking in response to some big disappointment. They're actually studying and making good grades. They're hanging out with better friends. They got a job and they're working. They're actually keeping their word.

1:37 But then we cry out our dealt, He loves me not. As each new bad choice surfaces, she was caught shoplifting. He got his girlfriend pregnant. He drove high and got a DUI. She refused again to eat and lost five more pounds. Our hearts and our minds can't comprehend how some of the choices and consequences we experience with our prodigals can be love. Does God love my child, my spouse, my sibling? Does God really love me? Can I trust Him?

2:20 Books are written and songs are sung about the love of God. When I was a brand new believer in my teens, I was deeply moved by the song, Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless free. Clearly, we can't do justice to that vast love. But at least let's take some time to examine some realities that have the power to confirm to our hearts and our minds that God does indeed love us. He said He did. He's proclaimed His love. Has He really said that? Oh, yes. Does He love our prodigals? Oh, yes. Absolutely. Throughout scripture, God proclaims His love for us, but nowhere more clearly than in John 3.16.

3:13 For God so loved the world, the world being all the people, that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. He's proved His love. It's easy to say, I love you, but do we demonstrate it? Does God demonstrate it? Clearly, definitively, uncontestably, unmistakably, you know the verse in Romans, it says, but God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He doesn't wait for us to get it together, to make better choices, to straighten our lives out, nor does He wait for our prodigals to do that. He loves us right now, who we are, where we are, whatever we are, and the same for those we love. He's also promised to always love us. Love can be lost, and I'm sure many of us have experienced a lost love in some way or other. What if my prodigal does something so terrible I can no longer love her? What if he doesn't repent and return to God? Will God quit loving him?

4:43 What if I do something so terrible that God quits loving me? Here's the promise in Romans 8, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a promise. We can't trust each other's love a lot of time, but we can always know that God loves us and that that love will not end. Seriously, God's love is forever.

5:29 He says so in Jeremiah, the Lord appeared to us in the past saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Everlasting means basically no beginning, no ending. It's an all-encompassing, always all the time, love that he has for us. And then he says, I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. And that's how God draws us to himself. And that's how he chooses almost always to draw our prodigals, our loved ones, to himself is through his kindness, unfailing kindness. Can I believe that he loves me without a doubt and my prodigal?

6:18 Assuredly, yes, I can believe. If I can believe his love, can I trust him? That's where the question comes, isn't it? Does his love mean he is trustworthy, even though what he does or allows does not always seem very loving? I've said that a few times. I know you love me, but this doesn't feel like love to me. Apparently, in God's vastly superior knowledge and unfoundably truer love, he knows realities that are actually loving even when they don't feel like love to me or to you.

7:00 Personally, when the events and circumstances of my life become painful, confusing, crushing, I have to go back to what I know about God, to the truths we have looked at so far. I know that his glory is incomprehensibly greater than I can grasp. I know that he is God, mighty, efficient, faithful, the creator of the universe. I know that he is good in his very essence, and I know that that glorious, powerful, good God loves me, and he loves you, and he loves your prodigal. So can we trust him? Yes, we can.

7:50 And now we have come to the greatest reason we can trust God throughout this wilderness journey we're on with our loved ones. Jesus. The Father loved Jesus, you know. He loved his son. He tells us in Matthew, a voice from heaven said, that is God said, this is my son whom I love. With him I am well pleased. So God loves his son. That assured love of the Father for the son instilled complete trust within Jesus, who reminds us the Father loves the son and has placed everything into his hands. So it's Jesus that's got everything to take care of there, and Jesus trusted his Father. He was so certain of his Father's love that he trusted him completely to live and work and speak through him. As John tells us, don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, rather the Father living in me who is doing his work.

9:07 So Jesus and his Father are one, and together that love, that godness, all of that is working on our behalf. Even in the most terrible circumstances described by Matthew, Jesus trusted his Father. This is in the Garden of Gethsemane right before he went to the cross. Scripture says, praying a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it's possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. Jesus, because of his great trust for the Father, even as he is living as a human being on earth, what he did was model for us the possibility of trusting God as a result of our becoming convinced of his great love for us. But there's more. Jesus gave us all these statements that start with I am, and what he's doing is he looks at all the needs we have, the needs of our heart and our mind and our body and our family, and he has an I am for each one of those. They're throughout the Gospels, so I'm just going to read some of them, not all of them. Just as the Father is I am the eternal, always present, tense God, and many

10:44 other names, so Jesus tells us that he is the following. Each name addresses some aspect of our need. All that we yearn for, he will satisfy. Whether it's relationships, meaningful work, freedom from fear and pain, beauty, peace, Jesus offers us all of that and more. Say there's the need to be nurtured, taken care of. When we concern ourselves with the well-being of our prodigals, Jesus promises to watch over our own well-being. Ready? I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Whatever our needs, Jesus can supply. He's watching over us as we watch over our loved ones, and he does that as well. The need for guidance. Oh, when you love a prodigal, you have a lot of need for wisdom and guidance. The path ahead is usually uncertain and often rocky, even dangerous. Jesus tells us he will light the way. He says I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. When you need light on the path to know how to work with your child

12:17 or your other loved one who's making your heart break, Jesus is there to show you the way. The need for a shepherd's care. Sometimes we stumble. Others do us harm, physically, emotionally, in every possible way. Our prodigals leave the light, choosing the darkness. Jesus says he's watching. He's a good shepherd. He knows our trouble, and he will come after us and our prodigals. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. What a shepherd we have. The need for strength. Too frequently we forget where our strength and sustenance come from. We try to navigate with our life, to journey on our own. Jesus reminds us of the only way to make it through. I am the vine, he said. You are the branches. If you'll remain in me, hooked to him, and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

13:30 But apart from me, you can do nothing. The need for rest. Are you tired? Oh yeah, we just spent four weeks talking about rest, but here we go. Jesus is coming to us again. How weary we grow if we try to do it on our own, and how exhausting it is to keep loving a prodigal who is making destructive choices. As we saw in our journey last month, Jesus is there for us once again with this wonderful invitation. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. What a wonderful, wonderful Savior. One more I am. Again, there are others. The need for his presence. In his presence, we discover what a friend, companion, close person he will be for us every step of this challenging journey. He says, surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Is that just amazing to think about his love? His love for us, for our prodigals, his love demonstrated when he sent his son to pay the price for our bad

15:03 choices, and then that Jesus himself trusted God so much, so much that he went to the cross, knowing that God was doing something much bigger and better. He modeled for us how it is that we live, and then he says, I'm going to be the one who gives you everything you need for this journey. What an amazing God. Once again, the question is, can I trust him? Oh, surely I can. Surely we can. Surely you can. But the question then is, will I trust him with my prodigal, for my prodigal, with my own life? Will I let Jesus be all that he says he is for me and for mine? Think about this. Have you personally experienced a deepening of your trust in God as you have more fully come to appreciate his love for you? Does love say, I can trust? Then maybe think about which I am of Jesus. Let me read them to you again. To be nurtured, he's the bread of life, he's the light of the world, he's the good shepherd, he is the vine that gives us strength for everything we need, he gives us rest, and he sticks with us. Do any of those meet a need in your life today? How about your

16:38 prodigal? God bless you. Thank you for joining me today on the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. Your review helps the show reach more people with the hope and encouragement of Jesus. Don't forget, take a look at the show notes. And for more helpful information, resources, and books, check out judydouglass.com. That's Douglass with two S's. You can find me on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram at JudyDouglass417.

17:25 Until next week.