“ACTION – Time to Get Up”
Action is where a lot of us get stuck. We know what needs to be done, we have stepped out onto the platform, but we just can’t move. It’s one thing to have the awakening and even to be honest about what we need to do. It’s another thing entirely to take the leap. In Luke 15:20 we read the simple phrase that changed the story of the Prodigal Son. Jesus simply said, “So he got up…”
He took immediate action. He recognized that it was time to get up. It was time to do something. And unless our story reads, “So he got up,” or “So she got up,” then nothing really changes.
This is where AHA stalls out for so many of us. We have an awakening moment, we even find the strength to be brutally honest, but we never get around to actually doing anything different. We spend much of our lives stuck between honesty and action.
You might be reading this and thinking, “I agree with you, but I just don’t feel like doing anything about it.”
It may sound a little cold, or perhaps a bit trite; however, the truth is we need to obey God even when we don’t feel like it. When we obey God even without the motivation to do so, our feelings will eventually catch up with our actions.
Look back at your game plan for the changes you need to make. You’ve probably made the list before, whether on paper or in your mind, and you know what they are. Identify the first step, just like the Prodigal Son did when he pointed out, “I will go home and say to my father…” He knew what he needed to do, and he carried it out. Find your first step and act on it now, whether or not you want to. And you may find that along the road, with God’s help, actions that at first seem artificial can become authentic.
Read Luke 15:20.
20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
Have you been awakened, and honest with yourself, but then not gone through with the necessary action? What is the first step you can take to begin that action?
“Grace for Both Sons”
The older son was indignant after seeing his father’s actions. This older brother may have worked hard and faithfully tended the fields, but he was lost in his father’s house.
There was no awakening. There was no honesty. There was no action.
The truth is, he, too, was a prodigal son. He, too, had a heart that was far from the father. He too was lost, but he didn’t see it. Tim Keller puts it this way, “The bad son was lost in his badness, but the good son was lost in his goodness.”
You may never have been to a Distant Country. You may have an impressive religious resume. You may have followed all the rules. You may have read this entire book thinking of all the people you know in the Distant Country who really need to hear it. But I wonder if you are the one Jesus has been talking to all along.
Luckily, when the older brother was in the field, the father left the celebration and went out to him. He engaged the son directly.
What does this tell us about God? God longs for a relationship with His children. Whether your life resembles the older son or the younger.
Even after the younger son’s insulting choices and reckless living, the father embraced him with kisses and hugs. And after the older brother’s harsh words and disrespect, the father lovingly explained himself. The patriarch would never have had to explain himself in ancient times. Households were not democracies; they were dictatorships. Yet the father answered the older brother’s anger with gentle patience and grace.
We expect God to be an angry father who demands justice, but through Jesus, He gives us love and grace when we don’t deserve it. Ultimately, the story in Luke 15 isn’t about two sons who disobey. It is about a Father who loves His children unconditionally.
Read Luke 15:25-32.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 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. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
When you have sinned, how do you envision God and what He thinks of you? How does His never-ending grace and love fuel the entire AHA process?
