Found In Him

The father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.  But it was fitting to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was [as good as] dead and has begun to live. He was lost and has been found.’ Luke 15:31-32 (AMP)

This past week has been a challenge for me particularly with some of the conversations that took place. There were times I felt like telling people about themselves and I honestly could not understand why people were coming at me like that as it was by no means provoked on my part. As I pondered about my potential clapback in each of those scenarios; I found myself instead, stopping right in the middle of my tracks and all I could hear was the Holy Spirit reminding me of who I was. So instead of retaliating, I chose instead at every given opportunity to respond in a calm, polite but firm matter and reflect Jesus.

Upon reflection, I realised that this was a massive sign of spiritual growth because I can remember on numerous occasions, prior to dedicating my life to Jesus Christ handling these kind of situations very differently. In those days, I would retaliate in a manner worse of than what they had done to me. It was all about getting the “perfect revenge”. Isn’t it good that God does not rule us out just because of who we have been and how much we keep messing up??!

The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 is a beautiful reminder of the goodness and the love God has for all of us. Even when we mess up and decide to go our own way, God is just waiting for us to come back to Him. When we do return to Him, His arms are outstretched to welcome us back. There is no condemnation but just complete, pure, unrelenting love! Does this mean that we will no longer mess up and make mistakes? Absolutely not! We will continue to make mistakes. However, when we do, we acknowledge those mistakes, repent and ask God to forgive us and choose to do better next time. If it means letting go of certain things or disassociating with certain people; that is what we are going to do by God’s grace. We choose daily to walk in the Spirit and not according to our fleshly desires just as the scripture says in Galatians 5:22-24 (AMP)

“God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”, Romans 5:8 (AMP). Remember that you do not have to be perfect for God to love you and He has ALWAYS loved you flaws and all! 🙂