The ReturnSample

Return to God

Perhaps you’re wondering, ‘Who will I find if I decide to return to God? What’s He like?’ Perhaps—consciously or not— you’ve avoided God because you’re afraid of His reaction to your sin.

One of Jesus’ most famous parables is recorded in Luke 15: the parable of the prodigal son, or the two brothers. A young man rejects his father and runs away to recklessly spend his portion of the family inheritance. Eventually, the guy returns home full of shame for what he has done, and he’s greeted by a father who forgives him. This gives us a stunning depiction of a Father who waits for us. No matter how much we’ve sinned, He is waiting to forgive us and welcome us home.

While we’re often encouraged to see ourselves in this story as the younger son who returns home, it’s also helpful to see ourselves as the older son—the one who sulks angrily when he sees his dad throwing a welcome-home party for his wayward younger brother. But notice how the father is just as eager to have his older son at the feast, extending to him the same warm, gracious invitation.

The way the father in Jesus’ story waits patiently for both his sons is a beautiful picture of God’s patience with us and His initiation of reconciliation. Mercy withholds deserved punishment, while grace endows unmerited favour, and our Heavenly Father offers us both in abundance. It’s worth doing some introspection to figure out if you identify more with the younger brother (returning to God broken by a lifestyle of sin) or the older brother (returning to God from ‘nearby’—though your heart has been far from Him).

In Isaiah 30, we find this same assurance of God’s patience as He waits for us to return (despite all the ways we’ve rejected Him), and the grace and mercy He longs to pour out on us.

We can’t comprehend God’s infinite power and holiness. To try to explain Him or understand Him, we must look to His nature. And what we learn from the prophet Isaiah and Jesus’ story of the prodigal son is that it’s in God’s nature to wait for us, and to be gracious and merciful to us. What’s more, He is faithfully working everything together for our good, even when we can’t see it. He invites us to return to Him so we can hear His voice, follow Him closely, and trust Him with our lives.