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"The Prodigal Journey"
Away From God

In Luke 15:11-32 we read about a prodigal son who took his inheritance from his father and journeyed to a far country where he wasted his legacy through reckless and wasteful living. After some time in the pig pen, the son decides to return home with a repentant heart and ask his father to forgive him.

Have you ever ventured into the far country away from God? I find that prodigals are not just those who get involved in drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography and other sinful behavior. Perhaps your journey as a prodigal did not take you into a deep pit but just away from that sweet fellowship with the Holy Spirit that you once enjoyed.

The Father is waiting for you to come home. He is waiting with open arms to welcome you back. So thus begins my journey of the New Year. I haven’t wandered far from home, only an occasional cuss word, a desire to share my life with a mate, thoughts about a mixed drink that I once enjoyed before holiness became a lifestyle. These are distractions that have wooed me away from the lover of my soul.

How do I find my way back home? I have no GPS system or roadmap. But what I do have is the Holy Bible, God’s inerrant Word written thousands of years ago remains a beacon of hope and a lighthouse beckoning the lost back to the cross of Christ.

While searching websites for a daily reading to start the New Year, I found numerous plans for reading the Bible through in a year, even a five minute a day five day a week plan to read the New Testament in a year. Wherever you start, getting the words of life into your spirit is a key to living the victorious Christian life.

The next step is applying God’s Word to one’s life in a practical way. Philippians 3:10 says “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Ultimately that is the goal of finding our way home, developing a relationship with Him and knowing the one who loved us so much that He died for our sin.

What do you do when you are in a relationship with someone you love? You first start by getting rid of articles of affection from past relationships. You wouldn’t be wearing the earrings that your ex-boyfriend gave you on a date with your new boyfriend.

Similarly, if your desire is a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and you are serious about God, then you will want to do a spiritual house cleaning. A former drug addict cannot keep drugs in the house, an alcoholic can’t keep alcohol, and an overweight person can’t store a stash of candy bars in the cabinet.

It would be really difficult to be in a love relationship with Jesus and sit on the couch and watch an x rated movie with him or listen to music with words that would offend Him. And yet that is just what some of us are doing.

Sin separates us from God. Isaiah 59:2 states, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear.”

Jesus never suffered the absences of His Fathers presences until He was hanging on the cross and dying for our sins. He felt for the first time the separation from the Father that is caused by sin…, not his sin but ours separated him from the Father. At that point, He cried out to God, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46.

Jesus died for our sins so that we could be forgiven by the Father. If you have wandered away from home and feel a distance between you and the Lord, then come home. He is waiting with open arms for you to repent, get the sin out and communicate with Him once again.

He loves us with extravagant love. He showers us with mercy and grace. He offers the most awesome gifts of salvation, forgiveness, redemption, and restoration. Welcome Home, "Prodigal"!!!!!

Are you tired of running from God?

Are You ready to come Home?

Patricia Harris 



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