So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. Luke 15:20 (NIV)
The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.'” Luke 15:28; 31 (NIV)
Heavenly Father, thank you for being the running and pursuing, welcoming and redeeming God that you are. Your mercies are new every morning; your grace is sufficient for every story; and your love is beyond our reckoning.
Just as you have all kinds of prodigals in your family, so do we; we appeal to you on their behalf today. For those in a “far away country” of pleasure seeking, responsibility shirking, pain medicating madness—do what you must to bring them to their senses.
If severe mercy is the only thing that will awaken them to your saving grace, then Father, be as severe as the wonders of your love necessitates. If things have to get much worse in their lives, then give us the patience, trust, and assurance that you are at work. And should we be tempted to rescue them before your work is done, grant us grace to resist doing so.
And Father, for our prodigals who haven’t gone anywhere but into the blindness of self-righteousness, the smugness of self-assurance, and the cocaine of their “intactness”—run to them, plead with them, and show them how much they need the grace of the gospel. Rescue them from their grace-allergy. Prodigals on an island of self-sufficiency are often harder to reach than prodigals on a hedonistic holiday.
Father, lest we stay too mentally and emotionally preoccupied with our prodigal friends and family members, renew our experience of your compassion, embrace and “kisses” for us in the gospel. Our primary calling isn’t to fix anybody in life, but to know you, glorify you, and enjoy you forever. May it increasingly be so. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ wonderful and merciful name.
