Sanctuary

Reclaiming the Truth

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’” – Luke 15.25-30

Redeeming the Time

At first read of the entire story, it seems like the younger son, the prodigal, is the worst offender.  But if you read the words of Jesus, the people He rebukes the most are the self-righteous. He goes after the lost and gives grace and compassion to sheep who have lost their way. Like the older son, those who see themselves as more deserving because they feel they have earned their righteousness and favor, He heeds them great warning! 

The sin of self-righteousness is the greatest killer of relationships, especially in marriages and in the church. It takes the focus off of a Good and Beautiful God and puts it on a person. It replaces love, grace and compassion, with earning, striving and performing. It is exactly the opposite of the Gospel. The Gospel is Good News that God has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He redeems us. He renews us. He restores us. What do we do? We receive what He has done for us.

The more we rest in and receive God’s love, grace, forgiveness, compassion, mercy, justice, blessing, etc., the more we are able to extend it to others. When we forget that, we are likely to miss the Gospel altogether. 

Reflection

• Where have you seen self-righteousness hurt you or your relationships?
• What is it that makes us feel the need to earn and prove our righteousness? 
• How might God be inviting you to be the Gospel in a current relationship or circumstance?

Resting in His Redemption 

Rest and receive His truth in this verse of life.

 ^“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” – 1 John 4.7-12

Reclaiming the Truth

“I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.” – Luke 15.18-20

Redeeming the Time

There is no better way to redeem the time than to humble yourself before God and others. It is one of the hardest things to do. For some of us, humbling ourselves before God may be easier than humbling ourselves before others. For some, humbling ourselves before others is a lot easier than doing so before God. Humbling ourselves before both is almost impossible.

There is something deep within us that fights the act of owning our junk. We would much rather defend, deflect, flee, sweep under the rug, pretend it never happened, avoid and even fight for our sin, than own it and humble ourselves. We hold onto the guilt, the shame, the condemnation of our actions, or even worse, put it on others. Especially those closest to us.

When we come before others in humility, willing to own our stuff, something beautiful happens… Freedom and healing! Freedom for ourselves and freedom for the person that was in the direct line of fire of our sin. When we come before God in humility, we own our sin.

Reflection

• What might God be inviting you to own that you have held onto?
• Is there someone you need to go to in humility and own? 
• How does the Father turn owning our sin into freedom and healing?

Resting in His Redemption 

Take a few minutes and do a search on humility in the Bible. Notice how life-giving humility is in God’s redemptive story! Rest and receive His truth in these verses of life. Here are just a few examples:

2 Chronicles 7.14

Proverbs 3.34

Proverbs 11.12

Proverbs 22.4

Micah 6.8

Luke 14.11

Ephesians 4.2

James 4.6

James 4.10

Reclaiming the Truth

“After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So, he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!’” Luke 15.14-17

Redeeming the Time

Can you remember a time when you were in desperate need…I mean, really in need?  So desperate that you were trying everything to get out of your situation or circumstances. Maybe like the younger son in the story, you were so hungry and thirsty for some kind of help that you would do anything.

It is at this point we usually find ourselves broken. Out of all solutions, fixes, and answers. All that is left is a desperate cry for help. I remember a story of a man who was on an airplane, and the turbulence got so bad everyone thought they were surely going to crash. The man grabs the hand of the woman sitting next to him and says, “Should we pray?” She responded, “Oh NO!  Has it really come to that!?”

What do you do when you are in a desperate situation? What do you do when you find yourself hungry and thirsty for more than what this life has to offer? What do you do when you are in a place that feels very distant from the loving embrace of the Father? 

God allows brokenness to happen in our lives for true redemption and healing to happen. It is in this place He turns our despair into praise! He does not delight in our desperation or brokenness but allows it so that we finally leave the tired methods of coping and hiding, or staying in our hurt so that we might feast on what He has prepared for us. Here, we will not hunger or thirst, rather we will be satisfied to the fullest and praise will be the cry of our hearts!

Reflection

• Describe a time when you were at your lowest. 
• Where was God and what was your belief about God at that time?
• Looking back, how might you praise Him for his allowance of that time?

Resting in His Redemption 

Rest and receive His truth in these verses of life.

“I will bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” – Isaiah 63.3

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” – Psalm 34.8

“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name, I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.” – Psalm 63.1-5

Reclaiming the Truth

“The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.” – Luke 15.12-13 

Redeeming the Time

We can all probably relate to the younger son. Demanding from God what we want from Him and not realizing how much we need Him…not His stuff, just His presence. As the song says, we are, “prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love.”

The younger son is in all of us. When things aren’t like we hope they would be, our tendency is to take what we can get and run. God, in His perfect love, allows us to run. He gives us the freedom to chase after what we want and what we think will make us happy. He knows His way is better, but He doesn’t force us into it. He invites us. The invitation is always available.

Are you running from someone or some situation today? Do you hear the invitation of the Father? It is usually a quiet whisper. It requires stopping and listening. Seeking and finding.

Before you run any further, take a moment and be still before the Father. Be reminded of what He has done for you. What He has done for you is exactly what He is inviting you to do for others.

Reflection

• Is there a time when you knowingly turned away and ran from God?
• Describe a time when you realized your need for God’s presence over His gifts.
• As you are still before God and listening, what is He saying to you?

Resting in His Redemption

Rest and receive His truth in these verses of life. 

“I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” – Psalm 16.7-11

 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” – Psalm 139.7-12