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

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 is part two of Why a Prodigal. Why did my child, my loved one, my friend, my spouse become a prodigal? From God's perspective, we're going to get some ideas. Last week, we talked about many realities that can contribute to a child, a dean, a young adult, even you or me, heading down a prodigal path, making destructive choices for our lives. As a child growing up, I always wanted my own way. My parents, my sisters, my friends all experienced the fallout of that if I did not get my own way. From the day I was born, I wanted my own way. I've been told that getting my own way pretty much determined the peace and happiness in our home. As a teenager, getting my own way included secretly seeing a forbidden boyfriend for most of a year and a few other things. Do you identify? Don't most

1:34 of us want our own way? Why? Why do we want our own way? It started in the garden. Our God, the Creator, placed the first humans in a lush garden with all the provisions they would need. Beauty all around, amazing creatures to enjoy, meaningful work to do, each other for delightful companionship, and freedom to live their own lives. He had just one requirement, don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent who had led a rebellion against God saw his chance to inflict great harm on the Creator. With clever craftiness, the devil suggested to Adam and Eve that God's prohibition was just meant to keep something good from them. They took the bait. Why shouldn't they have the knowledge of good and evil? Why would God deny them that? And ever since, we the people have been demanding our own way. We are rebellious in our hearts. Rebellion is basically opposition to authority. It always begins in the heart. Rebellion

3:05 against God's authority was humanity's first sin as described in Genesis 3, and it continues to be our downfall. Our sinful natures do not want to bow to the authority of another, even God. We want to be our own bosses, and that rebellion in the human heart is the root of all sin. As we learn in Romans 3, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So we see that the root of rebellion is the true cause of prodigal waywardness. Now stop and think about that. All the things we talked about last week are true, and they contribute, but at the bottom, at the very root, is this innate nature in us that wants our own way. And it is no surprise that as we approach the return of our Lord, the battle for our hearts has intensified. My friend Tammy Winkleman, who has a Prayer for Prodigals 7 ministry and Facebook page, sent me these thoughts when I asked, what are some things that are causing all the people going astray?

4:31 She says, 1st Timothy 4.1 tells why this is happening. Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. In the King James Version, it says seducing spirits, so deceiving and seducing spirits. And they're busy making sure that they get hold of as many as they can. Tammy goes on, I believe the God of this age, of the world that we live in, blinds especially young people in the way he did in the Garden of Eden as he tricked Eve and Adam. He convinces them through lies mixed with just enough truth to make it believable. 2nd Corinthians 4 tells us about this. Satan tried it on the Son of God, you know.

5:35 Didn't work there. Jesus didn't fall for it. But he does the same to all of us, the children of God. And here's something we know is true. The enemy is a liar. And our prodigals often believe those lies. Sometimes we do too. Here's some of the common lies Tammy says that she has heard people attribute, in a sense. The lie that God never did anything for them. When the Lord doesn't answer the prayers that they want, when they want, they say, see, he's not gonna do anything for me.

6:18 The enemy is telling them that lie. Or the lie that God will do things for others. Look at the great life they have, but not for them. Or the very common lie, a little bit won't hurt. You could do this just a little. Oh, but that's the first step and it often leads to a bigger step and much damage. Or then they might say, I deserve this. They have this. My friends are getting to do this. I deserve it too. Oh, there's even a lie that's very common for Satan. And that's that there is no God. That's just your imagination. That's something you've been taught. Or that if there is a God, he's certainly not the good God that you've been told about. See, we have this enemy who's just saying lies to us all the time. In the natural, an enemy preys on the young and the weak. In the spiritual, Satan does the same thing. When you give a little place to the devil, when you accept a little bit of a lie, then it's a lot easier for him to come back with a bigger lie and a bigger challenge that you'll fall for. Slowly he moves in, takes over, and bit by bit he's built a stronghold around your life where he can

7:51 control you. You thought you were getting away from control, you could say. No, the enemy is doing his best to be in control. So we see how many of our loved ones reared in loving homes and with the knowledge of God's love and of salvation through Christ's death and the gift of life, great abundant life as well as eternal life, they can still fall prey to the evil one. But let's stop a minute and be honest, it can happen to us too. We also like our own way. In reality, we are all prodigals. I must say that again, we are all prodigals. In fact, we're told in Isaiah 53, we all, every single one of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. There are those words right there, our own way. And the Lord has laid on him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all to pay the price for our choosing our own way. Let me tell you some of my story. Maybe it's similar to you. I told you I always wanted my own

9:22 way. When I met Jesus, it's like I signed a contract with him, at least in my mind. Jesus said on that night many years ago to me, if you say yes to me, I will forgive your sins and show you my better way for your life. My response, you have a better way for my life than I do? He said yes. And so I said I choose your way. And I thought it was settled. From now on, it would be God's way, not mine. Until the next morning, when things did not go my way, I resisted. And my new Lord whispered, Judy, my way is better. Jesus stepped into my life to set me free from my own way.

10:22 He plucked me out of a wrong crowd of friends. He grew love in my heart for my sister that I always fought with. He helped me to be more obedient to my parents. He put compassion in my heart and changed me in a lot of other ways. That was the beginning of understanding what a prodigal I was, even though I didn't even know that word yet. And I was just beginning to understand that my demanding my way had a lot to do with Jesus dying on the cross. Who knew? Jesus died on the cross because I demanded my own way. The Lord loved me so deeply that he was willing to pay the price for my rebellion and wanting my own way to set me free from my prodigal-ness. I am so grateful, but I am still a prodigal. God did wonderful work in my life to show me how to love unconditionally, to give mercy, to extend amazing grace, to never give up, to pray without ceasing for this son he had sent me. Because you see, that's where I learned how prodigal I was and how much God could do to bring healing. One of my son's greatest gifts

11:55 to me, and there were many, was to open my eyes to the many ways I was still a prodigal. No, my sins, my choosing my own way, were not so public or so grievous or so bad to anyone watching. I could hide it pretty well, or even to me. I wasn't doing the bad things, but I could recognize the complaining, the judging, the whining as the same old thing, wanting my own way. Yet living day after day in the flooding love of God for our son, immersed in his mercy, astonished at his grace, my eyes and my heart and my mind increasingly comprehended my own prodigal-ness and that, though more polite than my son's, it was still in a front to God's holiness, his perfection and his sacrifice for me. And now I know I won't outgrow my prodigal-ness until I see Jesus face to face, but I bow in gratitude that he keeps working, gently loosening my grip on my way, whispering reminders to let go, trust me Judy, rest in my grace, believe that your love

13:26 will not fail, and to believe that you have a better way than I do. I'm getting there. How about you? Do you understand first that this is a spiritual battle and that though your son might not be as bad or destructive as your loved ones, you are also a prodigal, that in many ways you are probably demanding your own way. Can you open your hands and your heart to choose God's way, day by day, even moment by moment? If you can, you may be surprised. Not only will you find new freedom and peace and joy in your life, but your prodigal will be watching and they may make the same decision. No, his or her choices are not your fault, but your choices may help that wanderer choose a better path. Next week we will look at the realities of the spiritual battle that's going on all around us and the impact that that has on your prodigal as well as on you. God bless you.