Today’s devo focused on the parable of the prodigal son

“…The good older brother who complained about the favour given to his younger, more rebellious sibling actually turned out to be the greater problem for the father. That son’s self-sufficiency made him harder to reach and caused him to question the father’s mercy…”

Kinda ironically, this somewhat relates to my inspiration post today about how (paraphrasing here), our belief that we are self-sustainable is what will destroy the gospel.

To be self-sufficient (as in the ability to live/survive without help) that would probably mean, we’re all well off getting everything that we want, yes? From one person’s perspective, I think that sounds great. But if you apply that to every person living on earth…..I don’t think we could all live with each other if we were self-sufficient. We’d all be so apathetic and selfish, and I mean, we’re already bad enough as it is now.

This is why in many ways, I admire the needy and poor. Especially when they find God and discover his love. Because they know how to value small things when they get it, despite whatever disastrous situation they’re in they are able to find joy, they are able to keep singing. It’s beautiful.

Are you aware that your neediness honours God? Well, in our experience it isn’t always an occasion for His glory; but it can be–if you present it to Him humbly and without using your own devices to supersede His. Don’t catch yourself lamenting that you are a high-maintenance disciple….We need to realize that we can’t maintain ourselves on our own…He is glorified in the way that He keeps us, heals us, restores us and builds us up.

It’s important to note though that God also knows everything that you need to live and grow spiritually. So while you should appreciate that you, as a human are naturally needy/dependant on God, you should also realize that this doesn’t mean God will say ‘yes’ to all of what you think are your needs. We all know the what would be wrong if God always said yes to us:

Bruce Almighty.

If you’ve never seen the movie, watch it. Although it’s pop-culture, I think it paints a fairly accurate picture as to specifically, why God wouldn’t always say ‘yes’