NO MATTER HOW MANY MISTAKES YOU HAVE MADE, DON’T BE AFRAID OF HIM. HE LOVES YOU. YOUR FATHER IS RUNNING TOWARD YOU TO EMBRACE YOU!

GOSPEL CORNER

02/08/24

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

Today’s Scripture
Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.
Genesis 33:4, NLT

MAKE THINGS RIGHT
When Jacob was a young man, he tricked his brother, Esau, out of his birthright, then he deceived his father into giving him the firstborn blessing that should have gone to Esau. When Esau found out, he was so angry that Jacob had to flee for his life. Jacob ran away from a problem he created, a relationship he severely damaged, and lived for twenty years in exile from his immediate family. When Jacob finally decided to go back home, it meant facing Esau. You always have to go back and deal with what you run from.

You can imagine Jacob’s apprehension of Esau’s anger and revenge, but Esau met him, embraced and kissed him, and they both wept. When you stop running, when you deal with things that you’ve pushed down, when you get honest with yourself and make things right, the grace of God goes before you. God will soften people’s hearts. You may need to ask for forgiveness or call that loved one you haven’t spoken to and make peace. Don’t wait. God will make your crooked places straight.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You that You restore broken relationships and soften people’s hearts that have been offended. Thank You that I can stop running away or staying away from people with whom I need to make peace. I believe that You are going before me with Your grace and straightening the crooked places. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

SECTION TWO

Today, I want you to read the parable of the father of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). As you read, keep in mind that this son utterly rejected and completely humiliated and dishonored his father, then only returned home when he remembered that even his father’s hired servants had more food than he did!

It was not the son’s love for his father that made him journey home; it was his stomach. In his own self-absorbed pride, he wanted to earn his own keep as a hired servant rather than to receive his father’s provision by grace or unmerited favor.

God wants us to know that even when our motivations are wrong, even when we have a hidden (usually self-centered) agenda and our intentions are not completely pure, He still runs to us in our time of need and showers His unmerited, undeserved, and unearned favor upon us.

Oh, how unsearchable are the depths of His love and grace toward us! It will never be about our love for God. It will always be about His magnificent love for us. The Bible makes this clear: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 KJV).

Some people think that fellowship with God can only be restored when you are perfectly contrite and have perfectly confessed all your sins. Yet we see in this parable that it was the father who was the initiator, it was the father who had missed his son, who was already looking out for him, and who had already forgiven him.

Before the son could utter a single word of his rehearsed apology, the father had already run to him, embraced him, and welcomed him home. Can you see how it’s all about our Father’s heart of grace, forgiveness, and love? Our Father God swallows up all our imperfections, and true repentance comes because of His goodness.

Do I say “sorry” to God and confess my sins when I have fallen short and failed? Of course I do. But I do it not to be forgiven because I know that I am already forgiven through Jesus’ finished work.

The confession is out of the overflow of my heart because I have experienced His goodness and grace and because I know that as His son, I am forever righteous through Jesus’ blood. It springs from being righteousness-conscious, not sin-conscious; from being forgiveness-conscious, not judgment-conscious. There is a massive difference.

If you understand this and begin practicing this, you will begin experiencing new dimensions in your love walk with the Father. You will realize that your Daddy God is all about relationship and not religious protocol. He just loves being with you.

Under grace, He doesn’t demand perfection from you; He supplies perfection to you through the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ. So no matter how many mistakes you have made, don’t be afraid of Him. He loves you. Your Father is running toward you to embrace you!