100 Days of Right Believing: Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing (35 page)
Read 100 Days of Right Believing: Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing Online
Authors: Joseph Prince
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.… But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”
L
UKE
15:20, 22–24
O
ne of the most beautiful parables in the Bible is the parable of the father of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). Many commentators call this the parable of the prodigal son, but the real hero of this story is the father and his love for his two sons. It’s a parable that Jesus used to skillfully unveil to us the true heart of our gracious and loving heavenly Father.
Please take a few minutes to read through the full parable, and as you read through it, consider this: What is your opinion of God, especially when you’ve made a mistake? Do you see Him as an all-powerful, distant, and unfeeling judge who is angry whenever you fail and who constantly has to be appeased? Or do you know Him as your Daddy, your Abba Father whom you can run to anytime, even when you have fallen short? Do you see Him as unwaveringly and patiently waiting for you to return to Him and then racing down the road to meet you with tears streaming down His face, embracing you, and raining His kisses upon you?
As I was studying the Word, the Lord revealed to me that many believers have come to a place where they have forgotten their heavenly Father. They have forgotten about His love, His grace, and His loving-kindness. They relate to God in a judicial and transactional fashion, coming before Him with apprehension and trepidation, presenting their failings to Him and quickly leaving before
they get the punishment and condemnation
they think
they rightly deserve from Him. They perceive Him
exclusively
as a God of holiness, judgment, and justice—His face steely and stern, His mighty arms folded in dissatisfaction and disapproval. They see a God who is easily displeased, quick to anger, perpetually disappointed with them, and waiting impatiently to be placated.
This wrong belief of who God really is has driven many into fear, guilt, depression, and insecurity. And that is why it’s so vital we see the heart of the Father as unveiled by Jesus in this timeless parable.
Beloved, do you see His heart of love for you? There is a vacuum in our hearts that can only be filled by the Father’s love. I believe that if you would allow the Father to come into your heart today and fill you up with His perfect love, you will find the joy, confidence, fulfillment, and freedom that you have been looking for in life.
Only the Father’s perfect love can fill the vacuum in my heart and bring the joy, confidence, fulfillment, and freedom that I have been looking for in life.
Father, open my eyes to see Your immense love and heart of compassion for me. Cut through any wrong beliefs that have kept me in fear, guilt, and insecurity. Fill my heart every day with Your love. I believe that in You I will find the joy, confidence, fulfillment, and freedom my heart longs for. Amen.
“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the L
ORD
Almighty.”
2 C
ORINTHIANS
6:18
N
ot too long ago, Lydia, a sister from South Africa, wrote to me. I believe that many of you would be able to identify with what she shared about her struggles in relating to God as her Father:
Dear Pastor Prince,
I grew up with very low self-esteem, having been labeled the difficult child in my family. I was an unplanned baby, and my parents already had one child—a girl, so they really wanted a boy. They were disappointed when I turned out to be a girl and even considered giving me to a paternal family member who did not have children.
My dad comes from a very cold, strict family, and he has a very bad temper, so I grew up naturally fearful of him and always felt like I was walking on eggshells around him. My mom also grew up in a household where she had not received love. Both my parents are extreme perfectionists, very organized, and raised us with military discipline and no compassion.
Thus, I could never relate to God as a Father. God was unapproachable and sitting with a lightning bolt ready to strike me whenever I wasn’t good enough, didn’t pray enough, or wasn’t obedient enough. I was under the impression that God was only pleased with me when I obeyed the law, that I never met His expectations, and I was always under condemnation.
Since encountering your teaching resources, the veil in my life has been torn. For the first time, I am free. I no longer walk under the heavy burden of condemnation. I learned that God loved us first, and I can now have a love relationship with my heavenly Father and Jesus.
I have experienced victory over fear and sin that kept me captive for years—not by trying to be obedient, but by just learning that my sins have already been forgiven on the cross. And no, I am not sinning more now. I am actually overcoming more and sinning less, and I have a grateful heart for what Christ has done on the cross.
Do you feel as though you are never good enough, can never do enough and be obedient enough for God to love and accept you? Do you feel you are always living under perpetual condemnation? Perhaps you can’t relate to God as a loving Father because you’ve never experienced the love of your earthly father or because your own father has hurt you terribly.
My friend, I pray that as we study the Word of God together, you will supernaturally experience the intimate love of your heavenly Father in a deep and personal way as never before. I pray that this experience will heal, renew, restore, and transform you in a spectacular way because His love for you is nothing less than spectacular.
The more I open my heart to experience the intimate love of my heavenly Father in a deep and personal way, the more I will experience healing, renewal, restoration, and transformation in a spectacular way.
Father, thank You for making me and calling me Your child. Because of Your spectacular love for me, I never have to be good enough, do enough, or be obedient enough to be accepted by You. I believe and declare that Jesus, by His sacrifice, is my acceptance before You today. I open my heart to receive Your deep and intimate love for me, and I believe You are now healing, restoring, and transforming me effortlessly from the inside out. Amen.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
J
OHN
3:16
U
nder the new covenant of His amazing grace, your Father in heaven isn’t looking to judge you for your failings because He has already judged your every failing, mistake, and sin in the body of His own Son, Jesus Christ. The name that Jesus came to reveal in the new covenant of grace is “Father.” Today God wants to reach out to you as a caring and loving Father.
Do you know the extent of His heart of love toward you?
Did you know that it was His idea to send Jesus to be punished at the cross for you?
Read the most famous passage in the Bible and personalize it so that you can see God’s heart for
you
: “For God so loved
you
that He gave His only begotten Son, that
you
who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn
you
, but that
you
through Him might be saved” (John 3:16–17). Know beyond the shadow of a doubt today that your Father loves
you
and sent His own Son to save
you
.
Understand that we are not belittling the work of Jesus at the cross when we talk about the Father and His love for you. The truth is Jesus came to reveal the love of the Father to you. God so loved you that He sent His one and only beloved Son to pay the heavy price at the cross to cleanse you of all your sins.
Do you know that God loves Jesus dearly? Jesus is God’s darling Son, the apple of His eye. Now, if your Father in heaven didn’t withhold His precious Son, Jesus Christ, and sacrificed Him for you, how much do you think He loves you? You cannot begin to comprehend the intensity and sheer magnitude of your Father’s love for you until you realize how much the Father loves Jesus—because He gave up Jesus to ransom you.
I hope you are beginning to experience and see for yourself just how loved you are by the Father and how precious you are to Him! Don’t fear Him—see the heart of your Father’s love unveiled through Calvary’s cross.