Know Your Father’s Heart

Today, I want you to reread the parable of the Father of the prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32). As you read, keep in mind that this Son utterly rejected and completely humiliated and dishonored his Father, then only returned home when he remembered that even his Father’s hired servants had more food than he did! It was not Son’s love for His Father that made him journey home; it was his stomach. In his self-absorbed pride, he wanted to earn his keep as a hired servant rather than receive his Father’s provision by grace or unmerited favor.

God wants us to know that even when our motivations are wrong, even when we have a hidden (usually self-centered) plan and our intentions are not entirely pure, He still runs to us in our time of need. He showers His unmerited, undeserved, and unearned favor upon us.

Oh, how unsearchable are the depths of His love and grace toward us! It will never be about our love for God. It will always be about His magnificent love for us. The Bible makes this clear: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 KJV).

Some people think that fellowship with God can only be restored when you are perfectly contrite and confess all your sins perfectly. Yet we see in this parable that it was the Father who was the initiator, it was the Father who had missed his Son, who was already looking out for him, and who had already forgiven him.

Before the Son could utter a single word of his rehearsed apology, the Father had already run to him, embraced him, and welcomed him home. Can you see how it’s all about our Father’s heart of grace, forgiveness, and love? Our Father God swallows up all our imperfections, and true repentance comes because of His goodness.

Do I say “sorry” to God and confess my sins when I have fallen short and failed? Of course, I do. But I do it not to be forgiven because I know that I am already forgiven through Jesus’ finished work. The confession is out of the overflow of my heart because I have experienced His goodness and grace and because I know that as His Son, I am forever righteous through Jesus’ blood. It springs from being righteousness-conscious, not sin-conscious; from being forgiveness-conscious, not judgment-conscious. There is a massive difference.

If you understand this and begin practicing this, you will start experiencing new dimensions in your love walk with the Father. You will realize that your Daddy God is all about relationship and not religious protocol. He loves being with you. Under grace, He doesn’t demand perfection from you; He supplies ideal to you through the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ.

So no matter how many mistakes you have made, don’t be afraid of Him. He loves you. Your Father is running toward you to embrace you!