God Wants You Back – Agness Thawi
Are you looking for your way back to GOD after being lost in the wilderness for so long? Or you have never known God and you don’t know where to begin? Do you hear these voices in your mind telling you that GOD won’t receive you after all you have done and maybe you don’t know what to say to Him after so long… don’t waste your time drafting a speech, JUST COME HOME.
In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24) after the son had squandered away all the fortune he received from his father as his share of inheritance on prostitutes and all sorts of luxuries, he had to start working to earn his daily food. He was going through bad times that he even admired food that was thrown to pigs. Then he came to his senses and recalled that his father had servants who were well fed than he was, he became so ashamed of going back to his father but he had no choice because he was at his worst. He didn’t think he would be forgiven or welcomed after all that he had done, so he prepared and rehearsed a speech to say to his father upon his return home. He prepared to ask his father to take him in again but not as his son (because he thought he wasn’t worthy to be called his son again) but he said I will ask him to take me in as one of his servants. When he was close to home, His father saw him from a distance and rushed to meet him half way. His father embraced and kissed him tenderly and before the son could even finish his speech, the father called for the best robe to be put on him, a ring for his hands and sandals to be put on his feet. The father ordered a party to be thrown and the fattest calf to be killed in honour of his son who was dead but had come back to life again, he was lost and he had been found again (Luke 15:24). This parable illustrates that no matter what we have done, no matter how far we have strayed and squandered God’s blessings, we can still turn back to God because he is waiting for us with open arms, but all we need to do is to take the first step of repentance and he will meet us half way to take us back home. The scriptures say that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and turns to God, than over 99 righteous who have no need of repentance (Luke 15:7) which just shows that God still loves us and wants us back. Jesus our Shepherd will leave the 99 sheep (the righteous people) on the mountain to come look for the stray sheep, that is the sinner (Luke 15:4-7) if we just call out to him.
All we need to do is to take the first step of repentance, confessing our sins and believing in our hearts with no doubt and declaring that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour who died on the cross as a sacrifice to atone for our sins. He will not force himself into our lives because we have a free will to deny him or to let him in. The scriptures say that when we draw close to God, He will draw close to us (James 4:8). Even though we have free will, God does not want us to perish in the wilderness. So out of his abundant Grace and Mercy, He gives us these chances in our lives so we can know Him, get back to Him and be saved; He does this by sending people to preach to us and by causing incidents in our lives to prompt us to turn back to him. It is up to us to obey or disobey, but we should never think that God does not want us. He has called us many times and, in many ways, but since we do not know Him, we fail to recognize the voice of our master; My sheep, they hear my voice and they follow me (John 10:27-28).
But… by repenting, we have to be ready to let go of our sins, we have to be ready to go all in for Christ by sacrificing our desires that lead to sin, denying ourselves by saying no to our fleshy desires, addictions and doing what is God’s will. Do not repent and plan to go back to sin, it only shows that you have not repented, because repentance basically means a changed behaviour. It is not easy to completely stay away from sin at once, because the devil will come after us more strongly and in different disguises to try and make us go back to our sinful ways of life. But if we resist him, he will flee from us (James 4:7) and we can fight him because we have the power over the devil, the power to defeat him and triumph over sin with the help of our saviour Jesus Christ, who says in John 6:37 that he will never drive away the one who comes to Him, meaning that we can ask Him for help and He will help us.