“The older brother was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and said to him…’Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’” Luke 15:28–31
Heavenly Father, if I only read the last 5 words of Luke 15:31, I’d be intrigued—“everything I have is yours” … E.I.H.I.Y. But considering to whom you spoke those words, I am convicted, leveled, and undone. I have much in common with the older brother. At times my arrogance, entitlement and ingratitude match his.
Father, we have no one like you, because no one is like you. Every day—no exceptions, you run to us in the Gospel—inviting, imploring, wooing us back to Gospel-sanity, freedom, and joy. Thank you, Abba, thank you.
As with the “older brother,” you ceaselessly confront our Gospel-amnesia, saying to us in the Scriptures: “My child, you are always with me because I am always with you. Nothing will separate you from my love, exhaust my grace, or deplete my mercies. I greatly delight in you, remain committed to quiet you with my love, and I never stop rejoicing over you with singing.” (Zeph.3:14-17)
“Everything I have is yours. I have made you equal-heirs with Jesus of the new heaven and new earth—an eternity of all things new, beautiful, and perfect (Rom. 8:17). But you already possess the fullness of my forgiveness, the righteousness of my Son, and a unique place in my family. Come, my child, let us rejoice and celebrate with your other beloved sisters and brothers.” (Sidebar: Oh, that this is what our corporate worship always felt like.)
Heavenly Father, I repent, yet again. Keep beating down my forgetfulness, ungratefulness, and graceless attitudes with regular, robust blasts of the Gospel—E.I.H.I.Y. So Very Amen.