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Monday, August 1, 2011

Coming to one's senses

"And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving any to him." As we continue on, we see that this young man is now willing to eat food fed to pigs. From being well to do to being in rags. Now we must remember that there were days in between these two ends. That this down ward spiral had days of hard times...stress. What happen to all his friends...as we mentioned before he is alone. No one to give him even pig food...You know when you are going wayward...most of the time it seems alright. You say to yourself, it's ok, nothing is happening...it feels good, I'm happy...We even find people to tell us that it's alright...we even associate with people doing/acting...the same way.
"But when he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger.' Don't you just like that phrase, "But when he came to his senses"? So many times we need to come to our sense. You know what I mean? We need to think, true thinking(Gods way...), not relying on our wisdom or wisdom of the times... Have you ever made choices in life that effected you greatly? We are talking about wrong choices or decisions not just sinful choices. Being not waiting, spending above your means, going where you should have not gone...You see we all are being pulled...For this young man the pull was hard, and it took him a long time before he came to his senses. I know in my life sometimes it took me a long time to come to my senses in some areas of my thinking. While others were easy for me, we are all different. So are you in the storm, being beaten down...maybe know is the time to come to your senses. Let's say the storm is about relationships, marriage, parenting, friends...and things are just not going well. It is hard to come to your senses here, to change yourself. That is to initiate a Godly change of putting on love...That you will forgive, that you will ask for forgiveness, that you will take a look at your own way of thinking...and change. That you will be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ.
For it is important when you come to your sense to start doing. Hopefully I 'm not the only one who has come to his senses...wanting to change...and to be better...do better...thinking of what to do..., all with good intentions, then don't do them. Do you know what I mean? Or sometimes I start out doing and then slowly go back to the way it was before. It is hard. It is hard to change. It is hard to let other know that you were not think right...not acting right...even if we are only changing our actions. We do not like to admit we were wrong...we were not thinking right...You see the young man in our story, came to his senses and said, "I will get up and go to my father". You see when one comes to his senses, he doesn't just stay there, he get's up and reacts.
For him it was to go back home to his father. He had to leave where he was and go back to where he left. So many times we need to go back or turn back to God. That is we need to go away from where we are now. Let us remember that in this situation, the young man is in rebellion...He moved into harms way. For some the storm that blows is for us to endure, to put more trust in God. For our young man, now he has a long journey home, walking...with a lot of time on his hand to think... You know guys it is hard to admit a wrong, never mind a continued wrong. It is even harder to admit that we are sinful...and not good...It is hard to admit that we need Jesus Christ. It's true these decisions are hard for us, but the love of God through Jesus Christ, will heal you and restore you! So he came to his senses and took action.