No Pain No Gain?

There is something that my husband brought up this morning that was very interesting to me. He said, "when people speak of the account of the prodigal son in Scripture, they always speak on only one son and sometimes both sons, but they do not speak about the father."

He was right, we almost never speak of the father, who is a picture of God, the sons are pictures of humanity, but the father is a type of God, in the Word of God.

The elder son had problems with obeying the father without loving him and the younger son disobeyed because of his lack of love for the father. Both did not love their father, one obeyed and one did not obey. Both did not love the father.

God deals with His children in the most loving terms possible. God offers forgiveness and salvation to mankind, but does not force them. He does not contend with them, He give them a choice and then lets them make it, either for or against Him.

In the account of the prodigal son, the father gave the younger son what he wanted and let him go. The father allowed the son to experience the hard consequences of his own choices without the father's presence. The father never ran after the son, begging and urging him to stop his carousing or wicked lifestyle, nor did he rush to give him money when he ran out of it. The father remained absent from the son during his time of rebellion. He allowed his son to wallow in the pig pen, scrounging for his food, until the son was ready to confess his sin and turn from it.

When the son confessed and returned, determined to be content to be treated as a servant, then the father knew the son was truly changed. The son left wanting his own way, lazy and bent on revelries, desiring riches to waste and came back broken, wanting to be in the father's house again even if it meant as a servant.

God deals with us the same way. He loves us too much to rescue us before the lesson is learned. Sometimes He takes our children far away from us to spare us the agony of watching them ruin their lives, while we remain at home, waiting and praying for the day our children will see their filthiness and desire to return home a different person than they were when they left.

Do we have the strength to love our children more than we love their companionship, Do we love them more than we love our own comfort and protection?

God's ways are best, sometimes they seem harsh, but they are loving. There is a saying that I have heard many times over the years in relation to physical exercise, it goes like this; "no pain no gain."

Why is it that we can see that pain is necessary in physical health, surgery to fix a broken organ or exercise to build muscles, but cannot see the need for pain in spiritual matters.

James 1:2-18
"2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,
10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.
11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures."