I love the story of the prodigal son. It’s such a deep story with so many layers and applications. For just a moment, focus with me on the end of the story. Imagine being that young man thrust in the middle of the banquet. He was surrounded by family and friends who had known him since he was a kid, but they also knew his story. Everybody there knew what he had done, knew how he had disrespected his father, knew how he had lived his life. They’d heard all the gossip about the immorality, the prostitutes and the partying.

How do you feel? Uncomfortable? Ashamed? Undeserving? Afraid of rejection?

Ephesians 1:3-6 contain some of the most mind-blowing truths in Scripture, and it finishes up with God’s grace “by which He made us accepted in the Beloved”. Accepted- highly favored, honored, showered with blessing.

As the boy journeyed home, his only concern was how his father would receive him. His father welcomed him joyfully, his heart overflowing with love. How does our Father receive us? The very same way. Everyone else at the banquet shared the father’s heart and rejoiced with him. Only those outside the banquet resented the grace the father showed the prodigal.

I need to focus on my Father, who accepts me, favors me, showers me with blessing. The people outside the banquet- He’ll deal with them in His wisdom just as the father in the story approached his older son.

When it’s someone else’s banquet, I need to make sure which side of the door I’m on- the rejoicing side or the pouting side.

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• Coming Home – Why the Prodigal Son Was Welcomed Back (lynnmosher.blogspot.com)

Alan had a rough time starting third grade. He was in a new school building, mixed in with some new kids, and for a while it was a daily battle to get out the door in the morning. He was intimidated (okay, bullied) by a couple of boys and bought into everything they said, especially what they said about him.

We tried to remind him that he could choose how he responded, that no matter what those boys said, we knew the truth. Some days it helped. Other days… not so much. Even as I tried to help him out, I was faced with my own question. How often do I let someone (whose opinion shouldn’t matter anyway) have control over my attitude and my day? Way, way too often.

What seemed to make the difference with Alan was when he heard all these things from Jon. They worked out a way to deal with the daily aggravation, with the key factor being spending some time with Dad in the morning before school.

Fact is, the opinions that do count are held by the people who love me, and God is the top of the list. He loves me with an everlasting love. He chose me and He’s going to show me His riches in glory because of Jesus Christ.

Bottom line- It shouldn’t matter what anybody else thinks cause my Daddy loves me.

Scripture written by folks long ago and far away can sometimes seem detached from us in the here and now. However, God is timeless and His word reaches across the years and speaks to our situations. With some passages, it takes a little personalization during your quiet time to see it. The Psalms are a great place to start. Many of them are written in first person. My son has had a rough year in school and has latched on to Psalm 56. It’s a great first person psalm about being hassled by enemies all day long. It includes “In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid.   What can man do to me?”

Other Psalms can be converted- I read Psalm 66 recently, and changed the ‘our’ pronouns to ‘my’ pronouns in my mind.
Who keeps [my] soul among the living,
And does not allow [my] feet to be moved.
For You, O God, have tested [me];
You have refined [me] as silver is refined…
[I] went through fire and through water;
But You brought [me] out to rich fulfillment.

In the New Testament, any passage that refers to believers can be personalized. One of my favorites is Ephesians 2:4-10.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved [me],
5 Even when [I was] dead in trespasses, made [me] alive together with Christ (by grace [I] have been saved),
6 And raised [me] up together, and made [me] sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward [me] in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace [I] have been saved through faith, and that not of [myself]; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For [I am] His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that [I] should walk in them.

We are not just a number or a name in a book to God. He knows us intimately and individually. Reading His word as His personal message may help us grasp that.

In Isaiah 37-38, there is a historical account of Assyria’s attempt to frighten Judah into submission. Having just crushed the Northern kingdom, the threat against Judah and the fear it stirred were very real. The story also appears in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Any story God tells is significant, but one that He records three times bears looking at closely. Here are some things I saw.

1. The opposition was wrong. The Assyrians misinterpreted Hezekiah’s efforts to remove idolatry from Judah as an attempt to remove all religion. Never believe what the opposition says about you, whether you’re dealing with people or when the conflict is more spiritual. Satan lies on purpose. People can purposefully try to deceive or just not have all the facts.

2. The opposition doesn’t know the future. One of the Assyrians scare tactics was a description of what life would be like when Judah was besieged. The siege never came. God intervened miraculously on behalf of His people. Only God knows the future, because only God holds it in His hands.

3. God is more offended than we are. Several times, Scripture mentions Assyria’s reproach of the living God. Judah understood how close their relationship with God and their identification with Him was. In the same way, any attack of any kind against us is an attack against God.

4. Let God fight the battle. Hezekiah went up to the temple and laid his situation out before the Lord and then went home in peace and confidence. I admit, I’m much better at part A, than part B. God took care of the situation in a way that went above and beyond what Hezekiah imagined.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Infinitely more… than we dare ask or imagine…

Most of us concede that if we really have to remember something, we write it down. Important information seems to come at us in lists. If you watch, Scripture is no different. Some of the lists you’re already familiar with- Ten Commandments, Fruit of the Spirit and so forth. Sometimes though, the lists are a little more subtle.

They can take the form of instructions, like in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go… teach… baptize… teach.”

They can be attributes, as in 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

It might be an action plan. “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord and to do it and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10) Yesterday we discussed being prepared for worship, and today, we’re prepared to work. Here’s our mission. We find out what God says, we do it, and we tell others. Why would we want to make it more complicated than that?

One of my favorite lists is in Ephesians 1:3-6. Check out the blessings in those few verses! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

1. Every spiritual blessing (We could actually stop there. The rest of it explains some of what that entails.)

2. Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world

3. Holy & blameless before Him in love

4. Adopted as His children

5. Accepted by His grace, according to His will.

Now we could dicker about exactly how many things should or could be on the list… ‘Holy” and ‘blameless’ could be two separate items, but no matter how you cut it, that’s a pretty fantastic list. There’s another in Romans 5:1-11. Check out all that ‘we’ have, what ‘we’ were and what ‘we’ are now.

Noticing and even writing down the lists that are in Scripture cause us to slow down and consider the truth for an extra moment or two. I number them in the text or write them in the margin. Watch for lists in Scripture, and spend some time with them, at least as much time as the grocery list or that to-do list. After all, these will last much longer.