Through Trials to Enduring Love

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Thursday, November 13, 2008
Devotions: Ps 27, 83; Joel 2:21-27; Jas 1:1-15; Lk 15:1, 2, 11-32

I have no reason to fear—God is my Light and my Salvation. He protects me from enemies, and makes them stumble. My request of God is this: let me live in Your house, behold Your beauty, and learn in Your sanctuary. God protects me and lifts me above the strife in my world. I praise God with shouts and songs of joy. God encourages me: ‘Seek My face,’ and I do seek Him. God, forgive my offenses; teach me Your ways and guide me on a path I can manage, with Your help. I believe I will see God’s goodness in this life; I will be strong and courageous, and wait for the Lord. The struggles of the world may drown out the still small voice of God in my tumult; but ultimately, God triumphs and frees me. His enemies are blown away like chaff in a hurricane. God rules.

The prophet addresses human societies and natural ecosystems: fear not; rejoice, for YHWH is in charge and He Who gives you life also prospers and protects you. God promises to restore to His people ‘the years that the locusts have eaten.’ So let us bear hardship with fortitude and in trust; good days—good eons—lie before us. God is with us, and pours out His Spirit upon and within us.

James is a tough counselor: count it as joy when you meet trials; God is strengthening you; this produces steadfastness. His goal is our complete maturity. If you lack wisdom, ask God for it—He is generous and will provide anything good that you seek. Approach Him in faith, without doubt. Humble yourself—(we have lots to be humble about!)—and let God do the exalting and judging. When we have stood the tests, God will give us a crown of eternal life. We experience temptation because we are imperfect; God works with us to purify and grow us up. Unholy desires lure each of us; if we follow those desires, they issue in sin, and sin leads us to the death that separates life from its Source.

The religious authorities murmured disapproval, noting that tax collectors and other societal rejects were gathering to Jesus, and He received them with love and courtesy. In His third parabolic response to their objections, Jesus told the story of the generous father with two sons—a prodigal younger son and a rigid, legalistic elder son. The younger demanded and received his inheritance—essentially proclaiming that his father was dead in his sight—and left home for a far country, where he squandered his inheritance ‘in loose living.’ When his patrimony was gone, a famine struck where he lived, and the man took a shameful job, herding pigs and longing to eat even the husks the swine were eating. He ‘came to himself’ and decided he would return to his father’s house, begging forgiveness and asking to be taken in as a servant. As the son approached, his father saw him coming, had compassion, and ran to meet the returning prodigal with an embrace and kiss. The father brushed off the son’s confession and proposal of indenture, and had him dressed in a regal robe, put a ring of authority on his finger and shoes on his feet. He had a fattened calf slaughtered and threw a barbecue fiesta to celebrate his younger son’s return, as if from death. Meanwhile, the elder son was returning from a day in the fields; he heard the sounds of celebration. When he asked, a servant told him that his brother had returned, and described their father’s responses. This angered the elder son, who refused to enter the house. Again, the father humbled himself, coming out to his petulant heir and humbly asking him into the celebration. Instead, the son voiced his complaints, justifying himself and vilifying his younger brother: ‘I’ve served you for years, never disobeying your commands—yet you never even gave me a paltry kid to celebrate with my friends. Then this whoring son of yours comes back in rags, and you kill the fatted calf and throw him a party! Unfair!’ The father tried to reason: ‘Son, you are my firstborn, and all I have will be yours. But it was only right to celebrate—this brother of yours was as good as dead—completely lost. And now he is alive and in his proper place!’