Over Every Situation

Day One–Plead the Blood Over my Prodigal Situation

I left the house that day with the intent of working on myself in therapy. It was a cool November rainy day, and the crispness in the air held so many possibilities. Although at that moment, I could no more grasp hope, faith, or possibility simply because my heart ached. That ache permeated my perception of Fall, and no matter how hard I tried, that haze filled perception prevailed.  I noticed the time when I pulled back into our drive: it was 4 pm. The rain drummed a beat on the windshield with that beat trickling down my shoulders as I ran into the house. Instantly, I looked for her–my troubled sixteen year old daughter–she was gone. 

Where could she have gone? I watched the camera, and her blonde hair peaked out of her light pink camo rain jacket as she walked down our drive at 2 pm. I lost sight of her as she turned right onto the dirt road just beyond the edge of our driveway. Just like that sixteen years of love and of child rearing disappeared down a wet dirt road. I searched and screamed for her for an hour and a half, and I called everyone I knew to help locate her. At that moment, the intense panic choked out whatever logic may have remained in my mind. I begged God to protect her or to send her home, pleading through strangled breath and streaming tears.

 Another hour passed, my voice hoarse from screaming, “Sophia!” at the top of my lungs, and just as suddenly as she disappeared, she simply stepped out of the woods and said, “Ma’am?” I longed to run her down to crush her with my relief, yet my reaction shocked me: I was so angry. Why didn’t I stop and think? Why didn’t I seek Him at that moment? Certainly, this was my prodigal son moment. Wouldn’t the prodigal’s father have robbed his son and celebrated? In the parable, Jesus tells of a father who has two sons, and the youngest took his inheritance and left the family (Luke 15:11-32). In the parable, the younger son squanders the inheritance and becomes impoverished. Jesus taught “[that] the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and [IS] found.’ So they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:22). 

How the grown child behaves is not surprising in this parable; however, the father’s response demonstrates the love of God, which always surprises me. The prodigal son’s father met his son exactly where he was: in his MESS, in his FILTH, in his SQUALLOR. The father robbed his son and celebrated with feasting. The father offered unconditional love and acceptance of his wayward child, and regardless of my biblical knowledge and my Christian belief system, I did not respond to Sophia the way I should have. I set my mind on my feelings of anger and of hurt, and my negative response to her further alienated her from me, which was not helpful to either of us. 

In every situation, I should plead the blood of Jesus so that I have a renewal of my mind and heart. Just as David asked God for a clean heart in Psalms 51:10,  I should have prayed: “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Yet, my attitude planted a seed of rejection in my troubled daughter’s heart. Oh how I wish I could go back to this very moment and do it over, but I praise my Savior’s name that He has taught me through my frailty and loves me through it. Christ covered me in His sacrifice and His sanctification through my salvation, and even hindsight can lead me to a better understanding of having the mind of Christ. 

My Prayer of Devotion/Day One Therefore, in this recollection and in this searching the word for YOUR answers, Lord, I ask that you lead me to that point where my only answer will always be YOU and YOUR will. Remind me of the living water–your very own word that teaches me the heart of the Father. Jesus, strip me of self so that I know YOU: “ that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4: 20-24). Help me put on my new self the one revealed the day of my salvation in every situation, Lord, I plead the blood over myself, my family, my church family, my colleagues, and  my friends.