All I could do was shake my head.
“Seriously?” I complained, “What were they thinking?”
We’ve all been there, blindsided by disappointment when someone we love did something careless, hurtful or sinful. It went against everything we stand for, and everything we wanted them to stand for.
Sometimes it’s a one-and-done event that scared them straight, other times it’s a series of bad decisions that led to a life of trouble and heartache, Sadly, every family eventually faces it, even prominent biblical families:
- Jacob and his vengeful sons in Genesis 34,
- Eli and his wicked sons in 1 Samuel 2,
- David and his murderous sons in 2 Samuel 13.
Although the historical account is missing, we can assume the family of Rahab (Joshua 2) experienced a similar disappointment when their daughter chose the life of a harlot.
Prostitution isn’t a vocation many little girls dream about. We don’t know what drove Rahab into that life, but today some choose it as a means to support themselves or a drug habit. Others are sold into that life by their impoverished families. Many are forced to become sex slaves by greedy, twisted kidnappers. It’s a dark, lonely existence.
Desperate for a sense of love, security, and dignity, they do their jobs. But deep inside, a part of their spirit shuts down.
Rahab was no different, but somewhere in her loneliness and poverty of spirit, the God of the Israelites saw something special. Of all the residents of Canaan, He revealed Himself to her.
Two Israelite spies listened as she whispered a truth hidden deep within her soul:
“I know that the LORD has given this land to you…
for the LORD your God is God
in heaven above
and
on the earth below…”
~Joshua 2:11 (NIV)
Her tragic circumstances tendered her heart to Him, and God looked beyond what she was and saw who she could be – a defender of His children!
God had a special blessing in store for this prodigal as well. Not only did He deliver her and her family, but also restored her dignity by giving her a husband – an Israelite man named Salmon. The son she bore him not only secured her place in the tribe of Judah, but also in the lineage of God’s Son!
Is there a prodigal in your life? Can you believe that God knows something you don’t and sees something you can’t?
“[Love] bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.”
~1 Cor 13:7 (NASB)
God wants to help us live out and demonstrate this kind of love, and sometimes that involves various degrees of tough love. But in every love we can:
Believe God has a plan for their lives,
Hope for their best and allow God to give us a redemptive vision for them,
Speak truth into their lives, and
Pray for them during their ups and downs, and ask the Lord to bring others across their path who would point them to God’s truth.
NO ONE is outside God’s ability or desire to redeem, including our prodigals. And according to Ephesians 3:20, He can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think!
OH yes, Is there a mother that does not have a prayer lifted of disapointment? I love that Rahab was not hard hearted and was seeking in her heart the God who could redeem.
God will not forget us, or our prayers that cover our children…as His blood covers us.
Great Blog!
Thanks, Di. And yes, you know we’ve lifted plenty of prayers of disappointments! Grateful that His blood covers ALL my prodigal-ness.
Hugs from VA
Thanks Susan. I pray this for my own children and extended family everyday. God has brought us through some tough times, but He has also shown us such mercy. I am thankful that we can come to Him in ALL seasons and that He loves us so.
I love the quote, “God loves me so much, He thinks I’m to DIE for”………..Have a good day!
That’s a GREAT quote! And He DOES love us so, especially in the tough stuff. Enjoy your day — stay COOL
Thank you Susan for your study of the Word. I appreciate your diligence to the Lord.
I love the book of Joshua.
Hester,
Thanks for your encouragement, Hester. It means so much coming from such a diligent student! I love Joshua too. He (and Caleb!) will be around for a couple more weeks
What wonderful encouragement! Thank you for your study and your willingness to share from His Word and from your heart. You are a treasure!
I love you!!
I love you too, Kristi. And you know I’m praying.
Thanks for commenting
Susan, thanks for this story of Rahab. I have always loved the way God used her in spite of herself.
I’m sorry in advance that this will be a little long but is so pertinent to the subject of prodigals and how the Lord works in the background — even if we don’t see or feel Him — that it bears sharing.
One of the hardest things I have ever done is to ask God to do whatever it took to get my son to honor Him again. Since my son is a firefighter, I knew God could allow him to sustain injuries I can’t even imagine in order to get his attention. I always cried as I prayed this because the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree: God has had to use that 2×4 to get my attention too many times to count. But I also knew deep in my heart that if God chose to use drastic means to get my son’s attention, He would also sustain me through it.
I wrote on my blog the other day about how God did use a firefighting situation to get my son’s attention, but not in the way I had imagined. My son is now a captain. He and his crew were fighting a wildfire last year and had everything under control until suddenly “something” happened and they found themselves completely surrounded by walls of fire. In my son’s words, “I saw nothing but fire, no sky, no surrounding hills, no out buildings, nothing but fire. The only prayer I had time for was “Please God, help me get my guys out of here alive”… that was it. Then it was gone, the fire had moved on and smoke surrounded us as we went to work extinguishing the area around the house we were protecting. In 15 years as a firefighter, I was never as scared as I was during this series of events. Through the fear I felt like I was “held up” and was calm through it all.”
He wrote to me about this and a couple of other moments when God became very real to him, and I keep this as his testimony in the back of my Bible. It is very precious to me.
All of this to say that even when we can’t see or feel God’s presence in our prodigals lives, HE IS THERE! He is holding them in the palm of His hand and working in their hearts to lead them back to Him. He alone knows what it will take to get through to them and penetrate the wall with which they have surrounded their hearts.
I prayed some very difficult prayers for my son to come back to the Lord for probably 20+ years. I’m sure some of you here have been praying a lot longer than that, but DON’T GIVE UP! God is faithful and will honor the prayers of a faithful pray-er.
Blessings to you, Susan!
~Anna
Anna, I love this. Thank you for sharing your story. While my children are not necessarily far from the Lord, they certainly aren’t as close as I’d like them to be. He seems to be an unnecessary appendage in their lives at best. And, like you, I pray almost daily for God to get their attention, to be heard by them. That’s a scary prayer. So I thank you for sharing your experience with that particular prayer. You have given me courage and hope.
Kay, you are very welcome! You’re absolutely correct in stating that praying that God will do whatever it takes to get the attention of our prodigals is a SCARY prayer! We don’t want our loved ones to have to be hurt in order to find the Truth.
You know, I have often thought that when God walks with us through one valley or other, He wants us to share the experience with others going through the same things, in order to show His glory and faithfulness to a struggling human race.
By the same token, I rejoice in sharing my mountaintop experiences in order to praise (bless) and glorify my Savior. Remember, He won’t walk with us through the valleys without also helping us get to the mountain tops!
Blessings,
Anna
Anna, I’ve been praying for you all day, and I’m so glad you’ve been able to respond to these comments. Your path was long and hard, and I knew you could minister in a way that would bless and encourage everyone.
Thank you for sharing your love for the Lord, your steadfast walk, and for your encouragement. You are a blessing!
Hugs from VA,
Susan
I have two prodigals – My eldest son and eldest daughter and I know in my heart God has great things for them… I have laid them at His feet. Amen.
This is a beautiful post full of hope and promises. Have a wonderful day!
Joining you in prayer for your children, Kathleen, and believing God DOES have great things for them and He WILL accomplish His purposes in their lives.
So glad you stopped by today.
Hugs from VA,
Susan
Susan, I love your admonitions on how to love when our loved ones go astray. Wise advice. Great post!
Thanks, Kay! Always love for you to drop by
I love the story of Rahab, but you already know that. Don’t you? I love what you said here and I have to admit that I need it this week. We are crying out for a soul that has been lost for decades. He is at the end of his rope and we are having to make hard choices. Never will we leave him, but I think he will soon feel left. I pray with all my heart that he will make the right choice and choose family over addiction. Pray with me?
Tereasa, God knows exactly what is going on in your loved one’s heart and is at work even as I write this to guide him back. Allow that to be a tremendous comfort to you as you constantly pray for him.
Heavenly Father,right now I pray for this lost soul and raise him up to You — the Father of all comfort and peace. In the name of Your blessed Son, Jesus Christ, I ask You to end the inner turmoil of this loved one and completely free him from the shackles that are binding him to this earth. Father, please soften his heart to enable him to see and appreciate the glory that awaits him… if only he would accept and acknowledge it.
Father, I also lift Tereasa and herr family up to you. Ease their burden and grant them a fresh energy in their prayers for this special person. I also ask You, Father, to fill them with the peace that passes all understanding, so that they may truly see You at work in this situation.
Thank you, Father, for always being with us, always available to hear our prayers for our loved ones. Thank you for who You are, our All in All!
Tereasa, let me leave you with a Scripture passage that God gave me during a particularly dark time in my life:
“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3)
Blessings & peace upon you and your family,
Anna
P.S. I shall continue to pray for your loved one as if he was my own…
Joining you in prayer for your friend, Tereasa. Addiction is a terrible beast, and I pray your friend seeks help. I also pray the Lord will reveal Himself in a way that’s unmistakeable, and that your friend will choose LIFE.
Thanks for sharing this request. I’ll keep him in my Monday book.
Hugs, Susan
Another great post, Susan. It leaves me thinking about the prodigals in my own life. Praying!
Thanks, Cathy. You know what James says — the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. Pray on!!
Hi Susan! It is so great to meet you from your link on ‘gettingdownwithjesus’. When I saw the title of ‘Prodigals…’ I just had to hear what you had to say. A wonderful encouragement to me. My prodigal is my oldest friend (and sister-in-law). She comes from a Jehovah Witness upbringing, some 25 years of it, and then, during a very difficult time of struggle, she prayed with my pastor and accepted Christ. She studied the Bible for a few months with my pastor’s wife, but then gave it up. I’m not sure why. She stopped coming to women’s Bible study as well because others would give her strange looks when she’d ask these deep questions–they didn’t know her background. Anyway, it’s now been 20 years since that time, and she has progressed and grown very little. Basically, she lives her life her own way. She says things that really make me wonder where she’s coming from. I confess to times of great frustration with her. We’ve ‘discussed’ the spiritual at great length but she continues to refuse to bend her knee or her heart. She is extremely stubborn and proud. She will not give me any straight answers as to what she really believes. I am concerned for her. She also has three children, grown now. She has never shared her ‘faith’ with them and seems determined not to. I guess I’m just wondering if anyone has any words of guidance for me as I continue praying for my oldest and dearest friend? Many Thanks.
Hi Jillie, I’m so glad you stopped by. I wish I had an easy answer for you, but we both know this isn’t an easy situation. I listened to a sermon recently, and the pastor said, “When you’re at a point where you don’t know what to do, do the only thing you KNOW is right.”
And that’s PRAY and don’t give up hope. You have so much history with her that it might be hard for her to hear from you. Maybe the Lord will bring someone else into her life or orchestrate an event that will get her attention. I’ll join you in praying that the scales will fall from her eyes and that she’ll come face-to-face with Who He is. And that she’ll choose to believe and follow Him.
As for you, you’ll want to stand before the Lord and tell Him that you prayed and believed in His power to redeem her and never gave up hope!
I’m adding you and your sister-in-law to my Monday prayer book. Keep praying, Jillie. He is faithful!
Hi Jillie, I completely understand your dilemma. When my son was not walking with the Lord, we could not talk about anything to do with God. He would just shut down. So I realized I needed to leave it alone but keep in constant prayer for him. I’ve also had this same reaction from a few friends and family members until I “got it” — God wanted me to leave THEM up to Him and simply continue in intercessory prayer. I think sometimes we need to back off so God can get in there and do His work in their hearts.
Jillie, I will add you and your SIL to my prayer list for the prodigals in our lives. Always remember that God IS always faithful and always hears the cries of our hearts.
Blessings to you & your family,
~Anna
Interesting timing. I posted about Sex Trafficking today. You might find it interesting.
One of my thoughts re: Rahab, however, is that, connected to their idol worship, what she was doing was a common occurrence in their town and the surrounding areas. The difference with her was that as soon as she had a chance to change, she was jumping into it… and taking her others with her. I’ve always loved the fact that she became a family member of our Savior. What a blessing… for all of us. Especially those of us who lived in, or sinned in, that same style of life. Facing it even today, believe me.
Thanks for sharing so beautifully. I truly understand.
Your post was an eye-opener, Joanne. And also scary. How many thousands of young women aren’t are as fortunate as you were? It’s beyond heartbreaking. (Y’all be sure to check out CaryJo’s post: Sex Trafficking And Me)
I loved your insights on Rahab, and there’s so much of her backstory we don’t know. She may have been out of that business by the time the spies got to her house, but even still — she bore the stigma and was still known as a harlot.
What an amazing love the Lord Jesus had for us, to carry our stigmas and sins to the cross. What a great close to your post: “I love my Savior for many reasons… And I worship Him, day and night, and will forever and ever.” AMEN!
Thanks so much for stopping by today!
My children are not prodigals and I am praying they never go down those
roads. Still, I needed to hear this this AM. My 14 year old sons is not “happy” about some
decisions we are making for him. While I understand his disappointments, I can def grow weary of him bringing the subjects up again…and again. I need to remember above all I MUST always respond with love and kindness and PRAYER or I will just be building walls. Walls that can lead to a serious breech in our relationship:0(. Some things are worth the “fight”, but not everything. Thank you for the reminder to above all love…and to always pray for my kids. I need the prayer too…that I don’t get too controlling, use kind speech, and let them grow up!
Thanks for stopping by, Donna. It’s hard to keep telling teenagers things they don’t want to hear, and it’s even harder to deal with the rolling eyes and back talk. And you’re so right about choosing our battles. We have to find good things to say “yes” to, and that can be a real challenge! Prayer is really the only effective way to know what’s right and keep our focus.