Treasures in the Wilderness 2: Never Give Up, episode 70, (rebroadcast)

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover, help, and hope for your wilderness journey right here at When You Love a Prodigal. And also, help and hope for your own life journey. Today, in our second look at Treasures in the Wilderness, we will consider holding on, keeping on, persevering, not giving up. Maybe you've been tempted to let go, to quit, to not persevere, and you just give up. But that's not necessary. This is a treasure that you're going to get today.

0:41 As you listen, note when you have given up and when you haven't and what the difference is. When my husband had a major birthday a few years ago, I decided I would do a photo album to celebrate his life, the many years of his life. But it was kind of late in the time before his birthday that I decided to do that. So I'm scrambling to get pictures from, you know, mine and my kids and his family and the ministry, everybody trying to gather these pictures. And I had to then put them into the photo book.

1:23 And you know, it was a challenge because Steve was around me and I had to do it. It took me several weeks of hiding what I was doing, in a sense, working on this photo album. But I managed to keep it a secret. He did not know what I was doing, even though I was working pretty constantly on it. On the day of his birthday, I presented him with a beautiful photo book celebrating him. He was totally surprised and delighted. He had had no idea that I was working on it. In a similar but certainly not the same way, God is working through the hard times that we walk through with our loved ones.

2:11 We can't see it yet, but he will reveal it at the right time. He's always working. There's two major kinds of works that he's doing. First, he is working in and on our prodigals. He's heard our prayers. He is protecting them from the world, the flesh, and the devil. He is using choices and circumstances to show the consequences of destructive decisions. He is reminding them of his love and provision and the opportunities that he's enjoyed in the past.

2:53 He's wooing them with offers of forgiveness and assurance of his great love for them. He is relentlessly pursuing them. He loves them more than we do, and he will not give up. I'm always so grateful that God is always working, pursuing, reaching out to, showing love to my prodigal. He's also working on and in us, you and me, those who love prodigals. He is committed to forming the likeness of Christ in us, to helping us become more and more like Jesus.

3:43 At least in my life, that has been a formidable task, and we're not there yet, though we have made a lot of progress. So how does he do it? How is he working? By surfacing areas of pride and self-will and fear and grumbling and greed and unforgiveness. You know what yours are. So we see how much we need him. When we see our weaknesses, when we see our areas of sin, then we realize how much we need him. With gentleness, he loosens our clenched fists and coaxes us to let it go or lay it down so he can replace it with his holiness and love and mercy and grace.

4:36 He opens our eyes to see his good plans for us and through us. Sometimes we are aware of his work in us, other times we are surprised by changes he has worked. But know this, he is always working. Suddenly or subtly, we recognize that he is God and he is good, and we truly believe that he can be trusted in our wanderer's lives and in our own lives. He has given us this wonderful promise in Philippians 1, 6, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

5:29 That's true for his work in us and it's true for his work in our prodigals. And just as he never gives up on the work he is doing in us and in our loved ones, he says the same to us. He says, never give up. In the book of Hebrews, there's a list of names and stories of people that God used, names like Noah and Abraham and Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Deborah, David, and many others. Most of them did not see what they worked for and waited for and believed God for.

6:17 When I've read that chapter in Hebrews 11, it's like, wow, they were faithful, they lived it, they went through hard things, they did what God told them, and yet they didn't see the outcomes. And that's a hard place to be. And for some of us, we'll be blessed to see the transformation in our loved ones and in ourselves. But for some of us, we won't see that. We won't know that they've come back to the Lord and to us and their lives are turned around from the destructive choices. Most of those people that were named didn't know, didn't see what they worked for, but they never gave up.

7:04 Hebrews 11 gives us a long litany of faith and faithfulness of some of God's children who never gave up. So let's bring it into our time using our lives or others who have prodigals, making up names. So here are ways that people like us have persevered. Sally gave grace over and over to her wayward daughter. Michael never quit praying for his addicted son. Jason persisted in love even when his child went to jail.

7:45 Laurie forgave repeated hurts. Many others prayed, saw rescue, healing, then relapse, and they're still waiting, but they haven't given up. And my story as well. I didn't give up when I was afraid, angry, disappointed, exhausted, hopeless. I bet you've had all those feelings. God has done a wonderful work and I am grateful. But I continue to live and love with open hands. My prodigal now belongs to the Lord, but the enemy never gives up trying to capture him, recapture him, pull him away from the Lord and from us.

8:35 And so I have to keep those open hands to let God do the work he's doing in my life, yes, but also in my love prodigal. Now add your name to that list. How have you persisted? How have you kept on no matter what your loved one has done? Yes, when have you given up? Most of us do it sometime, yet here you are joining God in relentless pursuit of your wanderer. Fight for you. How do we know that God will not give up?

9:16 Scripture tells us repeatedly of his faithfulness and perseverance. First Corinthians, God is faithful who has called you into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And second Thessalonians, but the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one and your loved one will also be strengthened and protected. First Thessalonians, the one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. And God said, oh, I love this verse in Hebrews 13, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.

10:02 I've held onto that a lot of times. Our God loves our prodigals even more than we do. He is committed to hear and answer your prayers and to pursue and rescue your loved one. He will never give up and he will enable us to never give up. He gives us this treasure, a gift of perseverance, of tenacity, of endurance. And these are indeed treasures for this wilderness journey. What about you? When have you been surprised at what God was doing in your prodigal and in you?

10:48 And when have you been grateful how God has enabled you to never give up? God bless you.