“So he got up and came to his [own] father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness [for him]; and he ran and embraced him and kissed him [fervently].” Luke 15:20 (Amplified)
Anyone with a little understanding of spiritual reality will concur that spiritual traits or characters seldom operate alone. I once saw a drawing of a tree depicting the fruit of the Spirit in which all the characters were individual fruits, meaning that you can have love without necessarily having faith or patience etc. I have since discovered that the better way to depict the interrelatedness of the constituents of the fruit of the Spirit is to liken them to a whole orange fruit, which is made up of several segments. Just as you can never have a single segment in nature, so also can you never have an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit isolated and by itself. While you can develop each segment at different times, the goal is always to be a ‘whole’ Christian, which is what the fruit of the Spirit is all about. Its function is to help us mature as individual Christians and to enable us take our rightful place in the body of Christ.
According to Gal 5:6, in Christ only faith activated and energised and expressed and working through love counts for anything. This means that perfect faith is that which operates from the perspective of love. Hence, if I have faith that is strong enough to move mountains, but is devoid of love, it is useless and is liable to failure. However, if my faith is rooted and motivated primarily by love, it can never fail and its fruit will always endure. So, where does hope come in? Hope is defined as the expectation or future dividend of today’s faith stance. So, while faith is for the now, hope is for the future. Faith enables me to believe that I have received today what was promised in God’s word, while hope enables me to keep expecting a future physical manifestation of what God’s word assures me is a done deal in the spiritual realm. Consequently, hope is the fulfilment end of the faith and love continuum. Since love never fails, faith and a hope that is rooted in love can also never fail. It just must succeed.
These three spiritual attributes were on display in the story of the prodigal son. The father loved his son enough to let him go. He had enough faith to know that he would eventually return and was daily expecting him to do so. This is the only reason why he spotted his repentant son while the latter was still far off. Love energised and kept the father’s faith strong, while hope kept despair at bay in the intervening period before the son finally came to his senses. After faith and hope had accomplished their task, love then took over and was what led the father to run to and hug his son. He then threw a party to welcome his son home and restored him to his former position. Love covers a multitude of sin. So, if you have a prodigal in you life, be it your child or spouse or relative or friend, first seek to love them in spite of their frailties, then trust God for a breakthrough so that they can come to themselves and repent and then start expecting their return. Be ready to shower God’s love on them to indicate your acceptance and lack of recrimination and your joy will be full in Jesus name.
Prayer:
Father, I was once a prodigal, yet you took me back and reconciled me to you. I now pray for the prodigals in my life and ask that you extend that same love to them through me. Cause your love to energise faith within me, which would give rise to hope and enable me to receive my prodigals to the glory of your name. Amen.