A newspaper article narrated how a billionaire business man had died in police custody- having been accused of murdering his son. His lawyer who had months before prepared his will gave a different version of the story. That the children of the deceased man became impatient and framed the old man so as to have an early share of his vast estate. According to one of the old man’s sons, “he was taking too long to die”. Yet when he was alive, they ran the businesses and benefitted from his properties as if they were co- owners. To their shock and upon his demise, not only had he left them the properties they coveted while he was alive but they learnt of other properties he owned which he had gifted them.
Do we know who we are as children of God and that all that He has is ours?
Almost similar to the newspaper article, the bible tells of a parable of a prodigal son in the book of Luke chapter 15. He asked for his share of his inheritance while the father was still alive and went to a far-off country. He then squandered it all and was then left to eat with pigs. When he remembered that even his father’s servants lived a better life, he went back and asked for forgiveness. The father being so pleased to see him clothed him in his best robe and slaughtered the fatted calf to celebrate his return. But let’s consider the older son. The model child who acted by the rules when compared to his brother. The one who faithfully served his father and who never left home. He returns from the fields and hears merry making. A party has been thrown to welcome his brother back home. We read in Luke 15:28-31
28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
31 “And the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.
One thing stands out from his angry response. That he viewed himself as his father’s servant and not as a son.
When we receive Jesus and believe in his name, we are given the right to become children of God according to John 1:12-13.
Is it however possible to be in the family of God but not understand what is accessible to us as his children? Is it also possible to be satisfied with what a servant would have a right to? Two key distinctions lie in the relationship between a master and his servant and that between a father and a son. A son has access to privileges that a servant would not have. A son for instance may be able to see his father in his private chambers but a servant would have restrictions. A son bears the father’s name and all that the father owns his to enjoy. Should the father pass on, the title to his properties would change to the son either on the father’s will or by operation of the law.
Like this older son, perhaps in our relationship with God, we have focused more on serving him as opposed to seeking an intimate relationship with him. Doing things for God to earn his love or some reward of sorts. It could be by offering our time to lead a bible study group, or being part of a choir or teaching a Sunday school class but missing out on the relationship with him.
The older son got upset because he felt he had wasted time serving his father and had not received anything in return. He did not know that he was not required to earn his father’s love or properties. That in reality all that the father had was his.
The word of God tells us that what no eye has seen, ear heard or mind conceived are the very things that God has prepared for those that love him. While these things could mean our earthly needs and desires, there is a lot more available for us in God. This includes spiritual blessings accessible to us in Christ. We read in Ephesisans1:3 that Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He [a]made us accepted in the Beloved.
Even the closest confidant to a master can never take the position of a son. Unlike this older son who was always with his father but didn’t know what was accessible to him – will you desire to know God as a father deeper? Will you pursue a father- son relationship to access these spiritual blessings?
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