Day 26

The Father’s Love

After Brandon relapsed again, he felt disgusted. He couldn’t bring himself to even pray to ask for forgiveness. He felt like a worthless hypocrite. And he was convinced God felt the same way about him. He didn’t even want to look at the Bible on his nightstand because it made him feel bad. He avoided God because of his shame. 

As we have seen from previous lessons, when there is confession and repentance for the child of God, there is forgiveness of sin (1 John 1:9). But even after this, the shame and sense of worthlessness can remain. The shame-covered Christian understands God’s love intellectually, but they don’t truly believe it, and they often feel emotionally numb to the love and acceptance of God. 

In Luke 15, Jesus illustrates how God radically loves people even in the midst of their shameful choices. By way of parable, Jesus shares the story of a son who asks his father for his inheritance. When the son received the money, he moved away, eventually wasting all of the money on prostitutes and wild living. As a result, he lost everything and ended up homeless. When he had to live in an actual pigpen, the son finally came to his senses. The son felt great shame and planned to return home and do the unthinkable: ask his father to allow him to be nothing more than a servant. The son no doubt feared the worse as he returned home, but look at the father’s response. 

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. - Luke 15:20

Apparently, the father was scanning the horizon looking for his son to return. When the father saw him, he couldn’t get to his child soon enough. He embraced his son, gave him a robe, a ring, and threw a huge homecoming party for him. The father didn’t ask for an explanation or demand answers for his son’s failures and despicable behavior. Instead, the father simply celebrated his child. He never stopped loving his son even when he was far off. 

God is ready to welcome the child who has strayed from Him. We are deeply valued and loved by God. Though we may have been far off because of our shameful lifestyle choices, the Lord longs to be gracious to us and welcome us back. 

God has proclaimed His love for us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s Word must define reality for us—not our feelings, shame, or the enemy’s accusations.

Reflection Questions:  

1. How do you see shame manifested in your own life?  
2. What stuck out to you about the father’s response to his son’s return?   
3. How should this encourage us to seek God even in the midst of our shame?  
4. Have you received Christ to become a child of God? (John 1:12, 3:16)