In his yearlong devotional “Grace for the Moment,” Max Lucado shares the following:
God does not save us because of what we’ve done. Only a puny god could be bought with tithes. Only an egotistical god would be impressed with our pain. Only a temperamental god could be satisfied by sacrifices. Only a heartless god would sell salvation to the highest bidders.
And only a great God does for His children what they can’t do for themselves.
God’s delight is received upon surrender, not awarded upon conquest. The first step to joy is a plea for help, an acknowledgment of moral destitution, an admission of inward paucity. Those who taste God’s presence have declared spiritual bankruptcy and are aware of their spiritual crisis…Their pockets are empty. Their options are gone. They have long since stopped demanding justice; they are pleading for mercy.
This is similar to the lesson of the Prodigal son from Luke 15:11-32. The youngest of two sons demands his inheritance from his father. For whatever reason his father gives it to him and the youngest son leaves home for big city lights.
He spends all of his money on wild living and is soon bankrupt. When his fair weather friends find out he’s broke, they abandon him as well, leaving him without family or friends, only bitter lessons he has learned the hard way.
So he does what he must to live. Despite being culturally unacceptable to his people at that time in history, he begins taking care of pigs. It seems from the story that he is right in the muck with them and the person who owns the pigs treats him as if he were a pig himself.
And finally “When he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!’” The young son had come to the end of himself. Who did he think of first? His father and how he treated those who worked for him. It was far better than he was currently being treated.
So he packed up what meager belongings he had and trudged back to his home to grovel. But what he did not know is that his father had been waiting for him with great expectation. When the father saw him yet far away he took off running as fast as his legs would carry him.
He embraces his stinking son with hugs and kisses and welcomes him back home. What most people do not seem to know is that this is the way God is waiting for them to come to the end of themselves and claim spiritual bankruptcy.
When the son returned he had planned to say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” His father never let him get out all of his planned confession but instead threw a celebration of his return.
God is infinitely rich and desires to pour out His riches upon you when you return. When God is for us, nothing can be against us; and God is for you. If you are reading this God is for you and desires you to come home to Him.
Zephaniah 3:17 informs us: “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save, he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love, he will exult over you with loud singing.”
Wow! God is waiting to do this with you! If you are apart from Him right now he is waiting. What a mighty and happy God we serve!
When you come to the end of yourself, you will find God waiting.