After reading a daily devotion by
Joseph Prince God placed the prodigal son on my heart. Imagine the
prodigal son lived today and you see him there in the pigsty,
filthy, full of mud, hungry and totally depleted. You feel so sorry
for him. You, as a well-meaning Christian go over and help him. You
give him food to eat; you negotiate with the owner of the pigsty to
give him a wage and to look better after him. You feel so good
about yourself that you helped him. You uplifted his situation
somewhat. Even though he is still in the pigsty, he is at least
fed.
Now do you really think you helped
him? The thing is you didn't really. You simply gave him a reason
to stay in the pigsty, you made it a little bit more comfortable,
just enough to keep him there. It is still a terrible place to be
in, but now he is not at that point that he will go back home to
his father's house. He will get comfortable in the pigsty and
simply stay there, far away from God's best for him. If you had
left him, he would have come to the end of himself and gone back to
his father's house, back to where he truly belongs. His father
wants to give him a ring on his finger, a robe, shoes to wear, a
position in his house. And if he went there, he would be much
better off than staying in the pigsty.
God then spoke to me and said that
that is what He is doing in the world today during this coronavirus
time. He is not intervening, but allowing us to stay a bit longer
in the pigsty so that we can come to the end of ourselves. He wants
us to come to a point where we realize that we cannot fix this, we
cannot go on, and that we then turn to Him. He wants us to come to
our Father's house, He wants to clothe us and give us a position in
His Kingdom. He wants us to grow and become the person that He
destined us to be. He wants us to be finished with the things of
this world and to grow into the true spiritual beings that we are.
For:
"Cursed is the man who trusts
in man." Jeremiah 17:5
We cannot continue to trust that
the government, our boss, our superiors will help us and look after
us. They won't. Only God will.
So do not get tired of praying, do
not think that God has forgotten us and that He will not help us.
He is waiting for the right moment. He so loves the world and wants
the best for us. He didn't send the virus, He didn't cause it,
remember the prodigal son left home all on his own. But God is now
waiting for us to come to the end of ourselves in the pigsty. If He
intervenes too soon, He will do us an injustice. He doesn't want to
leave us in the pigsty any longer. He wants to clothe us in white
and wants us alongside Him, looking forward to a better future.
Now, even though I am saying that
we need to wait a while before God intervenes, He will help us
during this situation on an individual basis.
"Blessed is the one who trusts
in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree
planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It
does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has
no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."
Jeremiah 17:7, 8
In other words, if we trust in God,
we will still bear fruit and still have green leaves even though we
are in the drought with the rest of the world. He will look after
us when we draw on the fresh water of His Word and His Spirit. We
needn't fear or be worried; He is with us in a mighty awesome
way.
The point is, God wants us to be
finished with the pigsty. He wants us to be finished with the mud.
He doesn't want us to wallow in it any longer. He wants us free, to
be the created beings we were destined to be. He has good plans for
us, a future and a hope and all of it is in His Father's house.
Jesus died to open up the way for us. We simply need to enter in.
Therefore get up out of the mud and run to Him. He will welcome you
with open arms. Trust fully in Him and be like a tree by the river,
full of green leaves and fruit! The time is now. The sooner the
better. This world has nothing to offer us. Our riches and glory is
in Him!!
Thank you Jesus for opening up the
way for us so that we needn't wallow in the mud any longer. Thank
you that we can go to our Father's house and be filled with His
love and life! We trust in You alone. You are our God and King. We
surrender and give over. Amen