Guest SOAP post from Austin.
The reading for Thursday is Luke Chapter 15 .
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father.” ~ NIV
Observation:
In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables: one about a lost sheep, one about a lost coin, and another about a lost son. I think we all know the story of the lost, or prodigal, son, but let me recap anyway:
The foolish son demands his inheritance from his father. His father gives it to him, and then the son goes off to a distant country and squanders his money. As soon as his money is gone, gone also are this son’s friends. Finally, this lost son gets a job feeding pigs. Ugh! Conditions get so bad that this son starts to think that the pigs’ food looks tasty!
As this son is sitting around all day with those stinkin’, smellin’ pigs, he starts to think of home once more. He realizes that even the lowest hired hand that works for his father has plenty of food. And here he is—the son—who is starving to death. He finally makes his decision, and goes back to his father.
The end of the story is very happy: as the son comes near his father’s home, his father sees him from a long ways off, and runs to greet his son. The son’s pleas to be just a hired hand are drowned in his father’s shouts of joy that his son has returned home.
Application:
I think we all can relate to this story, and the lost son. At some point or other, we all have gone away from our Heavenly Father and done what we thought we should, not what He would want us to. The good news is that our Heavenly Father is even more loving and accepting than the father in this story! God yearns for us to return to him.
So what are you waiting for? Stop socializing with those pigs and return home!
Prayer:
Dear Father, I know that I’ve done some things in my life that I shouldn’t have done. Please forgive me for those wrong acts—I’m humbly coming before you now. Please take control of me, transform me, and help me to now make choices that you would want me to make. I love you, Father! Amen.
Austin is a Tennessee teen who enjoys reading, geocaching, and nature photography. He loves learning how man landed on the moon, and blogs about that (among other things!) at: www.tennesseephotographer.blogspot.com
Be sure to record your own SOAP observations for the passage and feel free share your own thoughts or a link to your thoughts, here, too.
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