New Believer's Bible Sample - Flipbook - Page 10
H ow You C an K now G od
page A12
This boy thought his father was keeping him back from the good life. Over
time a strong curiosity about the outside world grew within him, a restlessness
to go out and sample the forbidden. He wanted to break the taboos and see for
himself. So he told his father in so many words, “Dad, I figure you’re going to
drop dead one day, but I don’t want to wait around before I get my inheritance.
So give me my money now!”
This kid was a spoiled, selfish brat who couldn’t have cared less about hurting his father’s feelings. That father could have stopped his foolish son, but he
did not. The boy had something we all have, namely, free will.
Jesus’ story pictures all of us trying to run from God. God says, “I love you,
so you’re free to go.” God will not force salvation on us; it’s our choice. So the
father in Jesus’ story did not stop the prodigal, any more than God stopped
Adam and Eve from eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. He loves
you and me and will allow us to make our own decisions—and face the consequences, whether good or bad. Clearly, he wants us to make the right choice.
But it’s still a choice!
God says to each of us, “I have given you the choice between life and death,
between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the
choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” (Deuteronomy 30:19). In Jesus’ story, the prodigal made the
wrong choice. No doubt, when he hit town he instantly became one popular
guy. But when the prodigal’s money ran out, his “friends” ran out with it.
Before long, this foolish young man hit rock bottom.
Maybe you, too, have hit bottom recently. Perhaps you have reaped the
results of what you have sowed. At first, the prodigal was living high on the
hog, but soon he found himself living with the hogs . . . and as he fed them,
their food began to look good to him. Even so, he still didn’t come to his senses
and go home! Instead, he prolonged his miserable situation and sank even
deeper.
That’s sin for you. It promises freedom but brings slavery. It offers success
but delivers failure. It pledges life, but “the wages of sin is death” (Romans
6:23). It guarantees pleasure but ultimately yields only misery. Oh, it can bring
some pleasure for a season, . . . but the seasons change. Sin often begins in the
bright days of summer but always ends in the biting cold of winter.
Maybe you are doing everything this world tells you to do in order to be
happy. Have you discovered yet that this world does not have what you are
looking for? In time, you certainly will; I just hope you don’t wait until the
end of your life. Or worse yet, when your life is cut short. None of us has any
guarantee of growing old.
Fortunately, in Jesus’ story, one day the boy realized his mistake. Jesus said
that “he finally came to his senses” (Luke 15:17). He woke up and smelled the
