I love the way the next verse, Luke 15:17, starts. The first six words reflect so much how things can rapidly turn around for us, and how God can instantly rip us from our evil ways. That verse states:
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘how many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”
Those first words of “But when he came to himself” are the key here. It’s the moment he realized that pursuing all these things outside of God were leaving him in want. They were literally and figuratively causing him to perish with hunger. This singular thought is an important thought that can turn someone’s life around. When we finally admit to ourselves that the things we pursue are causing us to perish with hunger, and following God will ensure we have bread enough to spare. Not literal bread, but the bread of life that satisfies our inner desires, and leaves us forever full.
I have had to deal with the same type of turn around as the prodigal son. There were many years of my life where I chose to run from the calling the Lord had for me. I instead wanted to study Asia, go to Asia, live in Asia, and love all things about Asia. Asia not being something evil in itself, but it is not God. It is not as good as God. It was wrong to put it up there as the thing to pursue instead of my Father’s will. Putting Asia in the place of God left me perishing with hunger just like the prodigal son.
Turning from the Father, and considering other pursuits more worthy of our time than the pursuit of the Lord’s will can cause us all to perish with hunger. It is in this hunger where God can speak to us, and remind us that those that serve him are never left empty. It is in that moment where He reaches out to us that we should repent of what we’ve done, and turn to Him. It is in that moment that everything in our lives can change.
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