Why a Prodigal 2: From God’s Perspective, episode 75

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

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Today is part two of Why a Prodigal. Why did my child, my loved one, my friend, my

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spouse become a prodigal? From God's perspective, we're going to get some

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ideas. Last week, we talked about many realities that can contribute to a

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child, a dean, a young adult, even you or me, heading down a prodigal path, making

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destructive choices for our lives. As a child growing up, I always wanted my own

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way. My parents, my sisters, my friends all experienced the fallout of that if I

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did not get my own way. From the day I was born, I wanted my own way. I've been

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told that getting my own way pretty much determined the peace and happiness in

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our home. As a teenager, getting my own way included secretly seeing a forbidden

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boyfriend for most of a year and a few other things. Do you identify? Don't most

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of us want our own way? Why? Why do we want our own way? It started in the

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garden. Our God, the Creator, placed the first humans in a lush garden with all

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the provisions they would need. Beauty all around, amazing creatures to enjoy,

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meaningful work to do, each other for delightful companionship, and freedom to

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live their own lives. He had just one requirement, don't eat from the tree of

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the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent who had led a rebellion against

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God saw his chance to inflict great harm on the Creator. With clever craftiness,

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the devil suggested to Adam and Eve that God's prohibition was just meant to keep

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something good from them. They took the bait. Why shouldn't they have the

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knowledge of good and evil? Why would God deny them that? And ever since, we the

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people have been demanding our own way. We are rebellious in our hearts. Rebellion

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is basically opposition to authority. It always begins in the heart. Rebellion

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against God's authority was humanity's first sin as described in Genesis 3, and

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it continues to be our downfall. Our sinful natures do not want to bow to the

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authority of another, even God. We want to be our own bosses, and that rebellion

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in the human heart is the root of all sin. As we learn in Romans 3, all have

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sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So we see that the root of rebellion

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is the true cause of prodigal waywardness. Now stop and think about

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that. All the things we talked about last week are true, and they contribute, but at

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the bottom, at the very root, is this innate nature in us that wants our own

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way. And it is no surprise that as we approach the return of our Lord, the

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battle for our hearts has intensified. My friend Tammy Winkleman, who has a

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Prayer for Prodigals 7 ministry and Facebook page, sent me these thoughts

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when I asked, what are some things that are causing all the people going astray?

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She says, 1st Timothy 4.1 tells why this is happening. Now the Spirit expressly

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says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to

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deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. In the King James Version, it

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says seducing spirits, so deceiving and seducing spirits. And they're busy

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making sure that they get hold of as many as they can. Tammy goes on, I believe

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the God of this age, of the world that we live in, blinds especially young people

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in the way he did in the Garden of Eden as he tricked Eve and Adam. He convinces

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them through lies mixed with just enough truth to make it believable. 2nd

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Corinthians 4 tells us about this. Satan tried it on the Son of God, you know.

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Didn't work there. Jesus didn't fall for it. But he does the same to all of us, the

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children of God. And here's something we know is true. The enemy is a liar. And our

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prodigals often believe those lies. Sometimes we do too. Here's some of the

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common lies Tammy says that she has heard people attribute, in a sense. The lie

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that God never did anything for them. When the Lord doesn't answer the prayers

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that they want, when they want, they say, see, he's not gonna do anything for me.

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The enemy is telling them that lie. Or the lie that God will do things for

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others. Look at the great life they have, but not for them. Or the very common lie,

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a little bit won't hurt. You could do this just a little. Oh, but that's the

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first step and it often leads to a bigger step and much damage. Or then they

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might say, I deserve this. They have this. My friends are getting to do this. I

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deserve it too. Oh, there's even a lie that's very common for Satan. And that's

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that there is no God. That's just your imagination. That's something you've been

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taught. Or that if there is a God, he's certainly not the good God that you've

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been told about. See, we have this enemy who's just saying lies to us all the

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time. In the natural, an enemy preys on the young and the weak. In the spiritual,

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Satan does the same thing. When you give a little place to the devil, when you

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accept a little bit of a lie, then it's a lot easier for him to come back with a

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bigger lie and a bigger challenge that you'll fall for. Slowly he moves in, takes

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over, and bit by bit he's built a stronghold around your life where he can

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control you. You thought you were getting away from control, you could say. No, the

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enemy is doing his best to be in control. So we see how many of our loved ones

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reared in loving homes and with the knowledge of God's love and of

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salvation through Christ's death and the gift of life, great abundant life as well

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as eternal life, they can still fall prey to the evil one. But let's stop a

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minute and be honest, it can happen to us too. We also like our own way. In reality,

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we are all prodigals. I must say that again, we are all

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prodigals. In fact, we're told in Isaiah 53, we all, every single one of us, like

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sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. There are those

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words right there, our own way. And the Lord has laid on him, Jesus, the

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iniquity of us all to pay the price for our choosing our own way. Let me tell you

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some of my story. Maybe it's similar to you. I told you I always wanted my own

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way. When I met Jesus, it's like I signed a contract with him, at least in my mind.

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Jesus said on that night many years ago to me, if you say yes to me, I will forgive

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your sins and show you my better way for your life. My response, you have a better

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way for my life than I do? He said yes. And so I said I choose your way. And I

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thought it was settled. From now on, it would be God's way, not mine. Until the

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next morning, when things did not go my way, I resisted. And my new Lord whispered,

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Judy, my way is better. Jesus stepped into my life to set me free from my own way.

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He plucked me out of a wrong crowd of friends. He grew love in my heart for my

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sister that I always fought with. He helped me to be more obedient to my

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parents. He put compassion in my heart and changed me in a lot of other ways.

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That was the beginning of understanding what a prodigal I was, even though I

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didn't even know that word yet. And I was just beginning to understand that my

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demanding my way had a lot to do with Jesus dying on the cross. Who knew? Jesus

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died on the cross because I demanded my own way. The Lord loved me so deeply that

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he was willing to pay the price for my rebellion and wanting my own way to set

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me free from my prodigal-ness. I am so grateful, but I am still a prodigal. God

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did wonderful work in my life to show me how to love unconditionally, to give

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mercy, to extend amazing grace, to never give up, to pray without ceasing for this

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son he had sent me. Because you see, that's where I learned how prodigal I

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was and how much God could do to bring healing. One of my son's greatest gifts

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to me, and there were many, was to open my eyes to the many ways I was still a

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prodigal. No, my sins, my choosing my own way, were not so public or so grievous or

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so bad to anyone watching. I could hide it pretty well, or even to me. I wasn't

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doing the bad things, but I could recognize the complaining, the judging,

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the whining as the same old thing, wanting my own way. Yet living day after

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day in the flooding love of God for our son, immersed in his mercy, astonished at

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his grace, my eyes and my heart and my mind increasingly comprehended my own

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prodigal-ness and that, though more polite than my son's, it was still in a

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front to God's holiness, his perfection and his sacrifice for me. And now I know

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I won't outgrow my prodigal-ness until I see Jesus face to face, but I bow in

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gratitude that he keeps working, gently loosening my grip on my way, whispering

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reminders to let go, trust me Judy, rest in my grace, believe that your love

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will not fail, and to believe that you have a better way than I do. I'm getting

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there. How about you? Do you understand first that this is a spiritual battle

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and that though your son might not be as bad or destructive as your loved ones,

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you are also a prodigal, that in many ways you are probably demanding your own

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way. Can you open your hands and your heart to choose God's way, day by day, even

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moment by moment? If you can, you may be surprised. Not only will you find new

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freedom and peace and joy in your life, but your prodigal will be watching and

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they may make the same decision. No, his or her choices are not your fault, but

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your choices may help that wanderer choose a better path. Next week we will

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look at the realities of the spiritual battle that's going on all around us and

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the impact that that has on your prodigal as well as on you. God bless you.