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

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

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right here at When You Love a Prodigal.

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And also, help and hope for your own life journey.

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Today, in our second look at Treasures in the Wilderness, we will consider holding on,

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keeping on, persevering, not giving up.

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Maybe you've been tempted to let go, to quit, to not persevere, and you just give up.

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But that's not necessary.

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This is a treasure that you're going to get today.

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As you listen, note when you have given up and when you haven't and what the difference

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is.

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When my husband had a major birthday a few years ago, I decided I would do a photo album

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to celebrate his life, the many years of his life.

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But it was kind of late in the time before his birthday that I decided to do that.

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So I'm scrambling to get pictures from, you know, mine and my kids and his family and

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the ministry, everybody trying to gather these pictures.

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And I had to then put them into the photo book.

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And you know, it was a challenge because Steve was around me and I had to do it.

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It took me several weeks of hiding what I was doing, in a sense, working on this photo

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album.

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But I managed to keep it a secret.

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He did not know what I was doing, even though I was working pretty constantly on it.

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On the day of his birthday, I presented him with a beautiful photo book celebrating him.

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He was totally surprised and delighted.

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He had had no idea that I was working on it.

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In a similar but certainly not the same way, God is working through the hard times that

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we walk through with our loved ones.

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We can't see it yet, but he will reveal it at the right time.

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He's always working.

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There's two major kinds of works that he's doing.

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First, he is working in and on our prodigals.

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He's heard our prayers.

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He is protecting them from the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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He is using choices and circumstances to show the consequences of destructive decisions.

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He is reminding them of his love and provision and the opportunities that he's enjoyed in

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the past.

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He's wooing them with offers of forgiveness and assurance of his great love for them.

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He is relentlessly pursuing them.

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He loves them more than we do, and he will not give up.

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I'm always so grateful that God is always working, pursuing, reaching out to, showing

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love to my prodigal.

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He's also working on and in us, you and me, those who love prodigals.

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He is committed to forming the likeness of Christ in us, to helping us become more and

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more like Jesus.

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At least in my life, that has been a formidable task, and we're not there yet, though we

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have made a lot of progress.

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So how does he do it?

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How is he working?

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By surfacing areas of pride and self-will and fear and grumbling and greed and unforgiveness.

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You know what yours are.

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So we see how much we need him.

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When we see our weaknesses, when we see our areas of sin, then we realize how much we

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need him.

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With gentleness, he loosens our clenched fists and coaxes us to let it go or lay it down

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so he can replace it with his holiness and love and mercy and grace.

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He opens our eyes to see his good plans for us and through us.

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Sometimes we are aware of his work in us, other times we are surprised by changes he

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has worked.

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But know this, he is always working.

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Suddenly or subtly, we recognize that he is God and he is good, and we truly believe that

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he can be trusted in our wanderer's lives and in our own lives.

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He has given us this wonderful promise in Philippians 1, 6, being confident of this,

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that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of

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Christ Jesus.

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That's true for his work in us and it's true for his work in our prodigals.

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And just as he never gives up on the work he is doing in us and in our loved ones, he

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says the same to us.

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He says, never give up.

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In the book of Hebrews, there's a list of names and stories of people that God used,

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names like Noah and Abraham and Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Deborah, David, and many others.

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Most of them did not see what they worked for and waited for and believed God for.

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When I've read that chapter in Hebrews 11, it's like, wow, they were faithful, they lived

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it, they went through hard things, they did what God told them, and yet they didn't see

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the outcomes.

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And that's a hard place to be.

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And for some of us, we'll be blessed to see the transformation in our loved ones and in

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ourselves.

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But for some of us, we won't see that.

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We won't know that they've come back to the Lord and to us and their lives are turned

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around from the destructive choices.

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Most of those people that were named didn't know, didn't see what they worked for, but

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they never gave up.

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Hebrews 11 gives us a long litany of faith and faithfulness of some of God's children

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who never gave up.

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So let's bring it into our time using our lives or others who have prodigals, making

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up names.

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So here are ways that people like us have persevered.

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Sally gave grace over and over to her wayward daughter.

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Michael never quit praying for his addicted son.

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Jason persisted in love even when his child went to jail.

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Laurie forgave repeated hurts.

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Many others prayed, saw rescue, healing, then relapse, and they're still waiting, but they

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haven't given up.

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And my story as well.

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I didn't give up when I was afraid, angry, disappointed, exhausted, hopeless.

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I bet you've had all those feelings.

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God has done a wonderful work and I am grateful.

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But I continue to live and love with open hands.

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My prodigal now belongs to the Lord, but the enemy never gives up trying to capture him,

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recapture him, pull him away from the Lord and from us.

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And so I have to keep those open hands to let God do the work he's doing in my life,

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yes, but also in my love prodigal.

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Now add your name to that list.

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How have you persisted?

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How have you kept on no matter what your loved one has done?

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Yes, when have you given up?

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Most of us do it sometime, yet here you are joining God in relentless pursuit of your

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wanderer.

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Fight for you.

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How do we know that God will not give up?

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Scripture tells us repeatedly of his faithfulness and perseverance.

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First Corinthians, God is faithful who has called you into fellowship with his son, Jesus

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Christ our Lord.

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And second Thessalonians, but the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen you and protect

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you from the evil one and your loved one will also be strengthened and protected.

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First Thessalonians, the one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

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And God said, oh, I love this verse in Hebrews 13, never will I leave you, never will I forsake

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you.

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I've held onto that a lot of times.

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Our God loves our prodigals even more than we do.

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He is committed to hear and answer your prayers and to pursue and rescue your loved one.

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He will never give up and he will enable us to never give up.

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He gives us this treasure, a gift of perseverance, of tenacity, of endurance.

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And these are indeed treasures for this wilderness journey.

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What about you?

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When have you been surprised at what God was doing in your prodigal and in you?

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And when have you been grateful how God has enabled you to never give up?

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God bless you.