Your Place In The Father’s Heart

Your Place In The Father’s Heart

Luke 15:18-24 (NLT)

I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”

So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son’.

But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

We all know the story of the prodigal son who woke up one day and asked the father for his share, He went and wasted all his money on wild living and at the time his money ran out, a great famine swept the land, he starved so much that he started admiring food for pigs.

One time he came into his senses and said to himself that at his father’s house even the servants have food enough to spare so he came up with a plan, he was like ,” let me go back home to my father, apologise and ask him to take me on as one of his servants”

This is a son who forgot his place in the father’s heart, he thought because of what he had done, now the father looks at him differently. He judged his place in the father’s heart basing on what he had done. He thought what he had done was too worse to recover from, that the best he can be is just one of his father’s servants and that is after a big apology speech.

But just because He had lost sight of his place in the father’s heart doesn’t mean his place in the father’s heart had changed. As he was busy coming up with a plan to be made one of his father’s servants, his father’s heart was always on him, the father couldn’t wait to see him, he was always worried about him. The father could always look out on the road hoping maybe he could see his son coming home that’s why on the day he came back, his father saw him while he was still a long way off.

The bible says, ‘filled with love and compassion, he ran….’.  As the son thought he had lost his place in the father’s heart, the father’s heart was instead full of love and compassion for him, the father couldn’t wait to pour all this love on his son again, he couldn’t wait for the son to reach home, his heart was burning with too much love to contain so he ran to him and embraced him and kissed him.

I tell people there are moments were words are too limited to express what you feel, what the father was feeling for his son was too much to be expressed by words, he couldn’t say I love you or any other words, he instead embraced him and kissed him. I can feel the release, the joy of the father finally holding his son in his arms again.

After that great release of the father finally pouring the too much love that was burn in his heart, the father then asked for the finest robe, the ring and sandals to assure the son of his place in the father’s heart, to assure him that he is still his so dear son. He threw a party to celebrate his son. Hope you can see the father’s heart in this story, what he feels for his son.

His father said to him, Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. Luke 15:31  

Meanwhile, the older brother was in the filled working and when he came back and heard music and dancing, everyone celebrating the return of the lost son, he was angry and couldn’t get in the house so his father came out and begged him to come in but the son was like; I have been here so obedient to you, working for you but you have never given me not even just a young goat for a feast.

This elder brother also had lost sight of his place in the father’s heart, he was angry over this one fattened calf and yet everything his father had was his. You can imagine how the father felt having two sons, one prodigal and one here with you but when none of them knows their true place in your heart, they don’t know what they really mean to you.

You are so dear to the father (God), there is nothing that can ever change the place you hold in the father’s heart. He loved you before you were even created, before you did anything bad or good, He loves you at your best and even at your worst. You might think you have done something so worse that you can’t recover from it but his heart is still full of love and compassion for you, He accepts you and he considers not your wrong just like in this story of the lost son where you don’t see the father talk about the son’s wrong at all.

Your wrong is nothing in the presence of the father’s love for you, stop condemning yourself, stop thinking the father looks at you differently just because of what you have done or not done, He knows you inside out and yet accepts you and love you the way you are because he knows only his love can perfect you. You can always count of the father’s love for you in your everything, realize that the father is dying to pour his love on you, you are not forcing him to love you, He himself chose you and His love will always be there for you.

Boast of the father’s love for you, just because something has happened to someone, it doesn’t mean it can happen to you, you’re so special, you hold a very dear place in the heart of the father and his love will preserve you, no more worries about anything, your father who so passionately and deeply loves you will take care of everything for you because he delights in seeing you smile, happy, full of joy & peace.

Your Place is the father’s heart is secure