A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (September 17, 2015)
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. (Isaiah 1:2)
My wife and I have raised three sons and one of those sons kept us on our knees for a very long time. This devotional is dedicated to every parent out there that has experienced the heartache of a son or a daughter that has gone down the wrong road.
Our oldest son got the worst of us. We were not saved when he came along and when we did get saved our household radically changed from what he was accustomed to. He rebelled against that and got into drugs early into high school. The drugs escalated to situations that landed him in jail on several occasions. It was a hard time for this mom and dad.
We prayed everything we knew how to pray and it appeared that nothing was working, including three different drug treatment programs that he went through. We were at the end of our rope when I felt we should pray for a woman to come into his life. Several weeks later he met his present wife and mother of his 5 year old daughter. It is amazing how God can change things so suddenly. Our son has been free of drugs now for eight years and has been gainfully employed on a steady job for seven years and that granddaughter is the love of our life. Hallelujah!!!
You know those prayers that I didn’t think were working? My son told me a story later that blew me away. He said he was in a crack house one night and overdosed. He said his spirit left his body and he was suspended in the air looking down at his body on the floor. As he hung there he said he heard God speak to him and say, “Son, this is not what I have planned for you”. When he heard that his spirit went back into his body. God heard our prayers!
One of the things parents of prodigals have to deal with a lot is guilt and condemnation. I know, I dealt with it. Here I am a preacher and my son is a drug addict. Where did I go wrong? Is there something else I could have done? The one scripture that set me free from all that was Isaiah 1:2, our scripture for the day. God, the perfect father, was speaking in this scripture. He said He had nourished and brought up children and they had rebelled against Him. Do you think God did something wrong? Don’t
think so! Sometimes, it is not about what we as parents did or did not do. At some point children have to be responsible for their own choices. God gives them a free will just like He gives us a free will.
Our suggestion to any parent with a prodigal is to pull out every promise from God’s Word about your children and write them down. Pray those scriptures! We even put a copy of those scriptures under the mattress of our son so he would be sleeping on the Word every night. If you need a treatment center, call us and we will give you some recommendations. But whatever you do, do not give up and do not get under condemnation from the enemy and just remember, love never fails!!
Though they join hand in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished; but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered. (Proverbs 11:21)
And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. (Isaiah 54:13)
But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. (Isaiah 49:25)
