The Prayers of the Prodigal: Part IV

Tip! Prayer, as taught by Jesus in its principal expression, enters into all the relations of life. It purifies fellowship.

And now the story says that, he came to himself. My! My! What a revelation and what a discovery! Thank God he met himself. This is the revelation for which he was made. Only it is sad that he should have to travel so rough a road, and have to have this auspicious meeting in so un-poetical and crude a place. But never mind the pigpen; it is the place of discovery and revelation for him. Let us think of that and not the pigs. The pen is not the end; it is the first step out and up. Where was your pigpen? To what level of the human and sinful failure did you move before you, too, came to yourself? Perhaps your pen had a few straggling morning glories over it to hide its real character, but it takes more than a morning glory to hide it. Let us leave the pen. It is God's glory that hides us. Thank His wonderful Name!

The youth's restless heart has climbed the hill and now makes friends with himself.

Have you, too, come to yourself and sat down to think through to such a revelation? Life (real life) is not a matter of the material world nor to be valued in the common terms used to appraise its worth. Jesus said, "For a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses." I am glad that He used the word things. That is so inclusive, comprehensive and limitless. Material things, of course, come first to mind--money, houses, lands, etc.; but things may be otherwise--fame, name, honor, power, intellect, gifts, position, etc. These are also often mistaken for life. So one may have an abundance of these and not have life or know life.

This young man discovers that life consists not in the abundance of things possessed. It is not things, but life, which is of supreme importance.

Tip! God is so concerned that people pray that He has promised to answer prayer. He has not promised to do something general if we pray, but He has promised to do the very thing for which we pray.

Also the lad finds that he is more than the body in which he lives. Man is essentially spirit. The body with all its sensations, acquisitions and functioning is but the vehicle of expression. The invisible, evasive, almost unknown personality is the living reality, and will outlive the poor, perishing body. He came to see these simple, fundamental truths.

There also were the principles and laws of being to be considered, and here the prodigal came on a field of dynamic truth and power. The temporal, material world is not the world for which he was created. He discovers some of the first, hidden, potential values of character building and spiritual culture. How it thrills him! Pigpen or no pigpen, he cannot remain here. Life means more than things, gifts, or all the material age. So he does the right and only important thing-he goes home, confesses his sin and rests at the feet of his father.

I know this story is intensely colorful and dramatic, l want it to be so; and do not let us miss the heart attitudes because of the bodily postures. "But when he was yet a great way out his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Is that not wonderful? The father does not stand still and wait until the son comes and falls at his feet and begs. The heart attitude of the Father is never that way. He ran to meet him. Oh, the deep and unfathomable love of a God like that! God running to meet a sinner, a poor, self-willed fool. How can you keep away from a God like this? I can't half see the robe, the ring and the fatted calf for seeing the anxious, loving heart of the Father. And did he not know the entire story? Do not worry--He knows everything only too well.