Day 38 – Fit For Life Challenge

It’s Day 38 of our 40 Days of Faith and Fitness! One thing I have learned in my faith and fitness journey over the last few years, is to truly be healthy, we have to be healthy in our mind, body and spirit! We are all of those in one person! One affects the others. I believe having our relationship right with God is the basis for all of it! He is my rock and I can’t truly be healthy as a total person without that relationship being right! This morning I want to share one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It’s a parable that Jesus taught about the prodigal son. Now, more than any other time, you need to come home to the Lord if you’ve been away. I hope this story will speak to your heart. It is found in Luke 15:11-32.
There was a man who had two sons. The younger son told his father that he wanted to go ahead and get his portion of his inheritance. So the father gave him his portion. A short time later, the young man packed up and journeyed off to a far country. There he proceeded to squander all of his possessions on wild living. When all of his money was gone, there was a famine in that land, and he became destitute. So he went and got a job feeding hogs. He was so hungry that the slop that the pigs were eating looked good to him. He was that bad off! Then he came to his senses and he thought,”My father’s servants have more than enough food to eat and here I am starving to death! I will go to my father and tell him that I’ve sinned against heaven and against him. I’ll tell him I’m no longer worthy to be called his son after all I’ve done, but I can become one of his hired servants.”
So he set off for home to see his father. While he was still far off, his father saw him. His father had compassion on him and took off running to his son! He fell on his neck and kissed his son! The young man told his father that he had sinned against heaven and against him and that he was no longer worthy to be his son. But his father, much to the son’s surprise, told the servants to bring his son the best robe to put on and to put a ring on him! He told them to kill the fatted calf and they were going to have a celebration! The father said, “Let’s eat and be merry for my son who was lost is now found!”
Wow! I love that story! Let’s look at three ways this story can relate to us.
1. The son left the security, authority, provisions and love of his father and his home because he thought he wanted a freedom that ended up not being free! He wanted his own way! He thought he knew better than his father. He stopped trusting that his father knew what was best for him! He thought he could find something better than what he had at home with his father. He wanted to be on his own and free! But what he ended up finding wasn’t freedom at all!
Don’t we do the same thing with our Heavenly Father? Don’t we think sometimes that we know best? We stop trusting Him to know what’s best for our lives. We pack up and go to a “far country”.. oh it might be fun for a while. But we end up finding that road took us farther than we wanted to go.
2. It said the son “came to himself” or in other words, he came to his senses! He had hit rock bottom. He woke up! Unfortunately it takes sorrow, or even tragedy sometimes, to cause a person to look up and realize they need to come back home to the Father! Maybe you’re trying to live your own way, apart from the security, provisions or wisdom of the Lord. It’s time to look up and decide it’s time to come home! Don’t wait!
3. This is my favorite part of the story! It literally gives me chills! Just picture it! A dirty, thin, worn out son walking for a long way home. He was hoping just to get to be one of his father’s servants. Jesus says as the son was traveling back home, while he was still far off, his father saw him and took off running to him! Get this.. the father was waiting and watching for him! You know that the father had been watching every day for his son to come walking up that road home! The father was the one who came running to the son! He wasn’t angry and saying “I told you so!”. He was so incredibly happy, he threw a party! They had a feast! He put a fancy robe and a ring on his son! And in my own mind I have to think that he had been keeping a calf fattened up just for this day! Just like the father in this story, the Lord is waiting and watching for each one of his children who have wandered away to come home! He isn’t waiting so he can punish you! He is waiting and calling out to you with his wonderful AMAZING GRACE! He is waiting so He can wrap you up in His love and forgiveness! We can never go too far or feel we’ve messed up bad enough for His grace! We just have to come to our senses and come home!
The son had everything he needed right there at home with his father! So do we, when we stay close to God.. He knows us best. He knows what’s best for us and gives us all we need! HE LOVES YOU!! If you’ve been away in a “far country” so to speak.. come on home!
Action Step 38👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
Read this story in Luke 15:11-32. Maybe you’ve gotten away from the Lord. Maybe you’ve never really gotten to know him as your Lord and Savior! Now is the time ! Don’t wait! Come to your senses, like the young man in the story! The Father is waiting and watching just for you!