As you know from my title, “Ex-Prodigal’s Daughter” I once was that prodigal, journeying back home…
This morning, I got to thinking about how ol’ slewfoot tries to circle back around and use the same tricks of the past to trip you up again, if you are not careful and keep a watchful eye, he can be successful… You just have to be aware of his tricks or he will think what he did before with you, he can do again. Think about it – I don’t know much about fishing or hunting, but I know people who do, and from the conversations I’ve heard, if they are successful at a certain fishing hole or hunting site, they tend to revisit the place. As in the physical, so is the spiritual. That is why the Bible says in Proverbs 4:7:
“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.”
This message is a “caution” message. from someone who is an ex-prodigal, such as myself – years ago while undergoing one very serious spiritual battle (and being naive enough not to know much about spiritual battles to recognize I was in one…), I walked straight into the trap of the enemy, fell deep into a hole. Totally caught me by surprise because not all traps of the enemy are ones that are recognizable until after you find yourself in it. It may not come in the form of what you have heard or expect. Ol’ slewfoot and his legions study you. They know your weaknesses; they know the buttons to push and who to use to hurt or distract you. They HATE you with a passion and do not want God’s good and perfect will to occur in your life. (I’ve written a post about the battle, see the post link below in pink entitled, “The Undefeated Soldier):
If you are not mindful you can step right into a trap, he’s good at covering it up and disguising traps so that they are not as obvious as what you would think. The Bible says in Ephesians 5:15-17:
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
We are truly dependent upon the Lord, this is why it is so important to commit everything to Him in prayer, to read the Word of God (the Bible) and so that we can gain wisdom, which comes from reading God’s guidebook for us. It is filled with SUCH wisdom. There is NOTHING in there that doesn’t pertain to us today. I have personally found it to TRULY be the Living Word of God. And the wonderful thing about Holy Spirit is that He gives you fresh insight every time you open up the Bible. Our mistake is turning to the Bible as a last resource to whatever we are going through instead of one of the first.
For the ex-prodigal, like myself – you learn to walk in wisdom and watch how and where you walk. I do mean the pun when I say, “Once bitten, twice shy.” Don’t let the tricks that have worked on you previously be the SAME tricks that work on you in the future. Due to a painful life situation, I had run AWAY from the Lord (instead of towards Him). My life felt out of control, the spiritual battle that caught me by surprise was one (as a young Christian) I could not draw any sense of familiarity, and i did not deal well with it… Spiritual battles that come from the evil one, are meant to make you lose your footing in Christ. I not only lost my footing, I fell completely off the pathway and ventured into the TOTAL opposite direction from the Father, and from where I needed to be., I did not handle it well, my life spun out of control, and because it was outside the realm of anything I had experienced, I did not handle the actions of the others involved, well. I felt betrayed and on unfamiliar ground, and instead of trying to gather my wits and run to the Lord for guidance, I found a way to emotionally escape (and let me warn you in advance – it wasn’t in the common ways you would think, not every form of sin comes in the common and predictable package of drugs, alcohol or sex), there are other subtle traps that ol’ slewfoot finds in order to trip you up. We tend to think it is the most common types of sin we hear about, but the devil is devious, and a devious spirit does not use tricks and methods that are predictable (show where the trap may be, that would be pretty stupid, wouldn’t it?). He likes to catch you off-guard, and there are many ways to run from God. I blindly ran away from the One Who IS the answer, smack into what I call, “No Man’s Land” and found myself in a prostrate position, smack on my face, humbly before God. All because I had stupidly (and willingly) allowed myself to go where I was warned by Holy Spirit NOT to; hurt and ashamed, I repented and with Holy Spirit’s help, made the trek back home to Jesus. When you hear people say that “God turns our mess into messages” it’s very true.
What did I learn from my prodigal time? I personally learned that it is ONLY God’s grace, His mercy, His forgiveness, His patience and His love that has saved me. That had always been the case, I just had to experience a prodigal time to have it hit home, in an up-close and personal way.
I learned that there is NO degree of sin. Sin is sin, whether you want to call it a “white lie” or “murder.” Unbeknownst me, in some part of me (because I lived a pretty “Sandra Dee-ish” kind of life), I had unknown “pride” in myself, that made it hard for me to identify with anyone who did not come from an “upper middle-class family.” I didn’t know I had that pride in me – but I surely discovered what the saying, “there go I, but the grace of God” meant. I found that I had allowed myself to walk right down a path God had never intended. Suddenly I had a better understanding of the Prodigal Parable spoken about in Luke 15:11-32. I returned to Christ gently chastised in love by Holy Spirit and truly a new creation in Him. I was humbled. Here is the thing, I don’t condone “the prodigal way of life” if you read about the prodigal, you will find that he did not STAY a prodigal. His arrogance and pride and yes – that SAME spirit of entitlement that exists in the world EVEN today – made him feel as though “his father owed him his inheritance.” Tell me you don’t see and recognize that SAME spirit today in our kids? How it must have hurt the Father to see His child (us) take a path He never intended us to follow, but God has created us with “free-will.” Free-will is totally NOT freeing at all… Yet when we reach the point where we realize it – it has become a personal experience that (hopefully as in MY case, and as in the case of the Prodigal’s son) makes you travel back home with a faith that maybe once was his father’s but now (on a very personal level) has become his own… We cannot give our children our walk with Christ, their journey (whether smooth sailing or tough road) becomes their own experience in Him.
You can’t undo the mistakes you make; everyone falls short – EVERYONE. Whether they will admit it or not. Isaiah 1:18 says:
“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Although they forget that God forgives, and that it says in Micah 7:19:
“You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.:”
People are not as forgiving (sometimes even those who profess to be Christians), and the next line of ol’ slewfoot’s attacks will come from them, because if he can’t get at you one way, he will try another angle and often it is through people who will be very quick to judge you and assume things about you, forgetting what Jesus spoke about in Matthew 7:1-5:
“”Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
And in Isaiah 64:6:
“We are all dirty with sin. Even our good works are not pure. They are like bloodstained rags. We are all like dead leaves. Our sins have carried us away like wind.”
Jesus said we should walk in forgiveness, which is why we need to be very careful how we decide to judge and view someone else, in 1 Samuel 16:7 the Lord said:
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
One of the other Prodigal Lessons I learned is that you can very easily find yourself in the shoes of the one you have judged and not even realized how they got on your very own feet! The Bible says in Proverbs 16:18:
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Listen, when you feel like a wine grape that has been pressed to the point that there is no “plumpness” left, it is then that God is able to fill you and strengthen you with HIS strength. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:13:
“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
Lastly, as God has forgiven you, FORGIVE YOURSELF. This is an area where ol’ slewfoot (the accuser) will keep accusing you even when God has already forgiven you. Don’t fall in that trap! If you have repented and asked God to forgive you, if you have tried to ask forgiveness of others (should you need to) and even if they haven’t forgiven you – GOD HAS. Let God bring them to a point where they can “take that plank out of their own eye” we need to walk in forgiveness, even for those who choose NOT to forgive. Walk in love and lay it at the cross of our Savior. God will bring them to a point where they have to take a hard long look at their own actions. The Only sinless Man to walk this earth was Jesus. Pray for them.
When you reach a point in your walk with Christ where you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is nothing other than God’s mercies, His forgiveness, His grace and His love that allows us to have ANY kind of worth of all, then we open up ourselves to be used as vessels for Him, and allow others to learn from the mistakes we have made, so that through it ALL God is glorified. And true thanks and worship easily comes out of your heart by way of your mouth. Or, as in the wonderful lyrics of the Song “Great is Thy Faithfulness written in 1823 by Thomas O. Chisholm, you can sing with your whole heart and soul, the following words and TRULY understand and mean what they say on a personal level:
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father; There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not; As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see: All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me! Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow—Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
And when you reach THAT point in your walk, where what the devil meant for evil, God is able to use for His good, you use your prodigal lesson to benefit someone else and hopefully keep them from making the same mistake you, yourself has made. Because TRULY greater is HE that is in the heart of the believer -the one who chooses to acknowledge Jesus Christ not only as their personal Savior but has made Him Lord over His/Her life – will stand victorious in Him. Thanks be to God. AMEN
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