18‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19“and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ 20“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22“But the father said to his servants, f‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23‘And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24‘for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
Luke 15: 18 - 24 NKJV
Every fathers day I seem to spend some time thinking on what could have been. On what might have been had the situation been different. What if my own father had been a part of my life? What shifts in the fates would have been different if he simply would have been a man and taken care of his family? What if my own father had come to know Jesus as I know Him? I can only speculate on the outcome of time if these things had come to pass, but in the end it would be just that...speculation. All of the would haves and should haves in the world will never change the fact that this will be yet another fathers day in the life of one whose own father was not around when I needed him to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not crying in my beer. I'm reflecting on what could have been...and there's a difference between the two. The fact of the matter is that I can only work on those things from in my life in the present. So it was that we found ourselves in a interesting discussion on this fathers day in our Sunday morning McChurch group. The discussion centered around our desires. Well, let me correct myself, around GODS desires of our hearts. Most of us are familiar with the passage from Psalms where we are told that God will indeed give us those deisres of our heart.
4Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37: 4 NKJV
For the purpose of this mornings discussion, those desires which we keep so very near to us are but the desires of Christ Jesus. After all, we are now one with Christ today {Galations 2:20}. Therefore, those desires which we keep within us are indeed a part of Him as well. You could say, then, that it is the desire of Jesus to earn money to pay our bills, to buy a home and to be healthier. Indeed, whatever it is that we deisre in our own hearts, we can be sure that we share these same desires with Christ Jesus who we live as today. Now, this all seemed pretty straight forward until we got into the weeds a bit with our talk of the desires of our hearts. For example, was it the desire of Abrahams heart to put his only son Issac to death? I cannot attest to that, but he indeed was on that path until his Lord stopped him from doing so {Genesis 22:12}. Was it the desire of the hearts of Jacobs brothers that they would sell him into slavery to the Egyptions? Indeed, but for what purpose? We're told as Jacob stood before his brothers as one of the most important people in all of Egypt. As Jacob tells his family, "What you meant for evil God meant for good." So it is that the wicked desires of the brothers of Joseph were used by God to save Josephs family from famine. So it is also that whatever those desires that are layed upon our own hearts that we can be assured that we share these same heart desires with Christ Jesus. The desires of His heart become our own.
18Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
Genesis 50: 18 - 20 NKJV
~Scott~
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