Devotional: In God’s Hands Luke 15:11-24

“The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them” (Lk. 15:12, NASB).

When I am a child growing up I often disobey my parents. I do many things that displease them. Mom and dad have their standards, but I have my own ideas about what I want to do. I believe that I know what is best for me. I think that the things that seem to promise me instant pleasure is what I ought to do. There are times when my mother, especially, will punish me because of something that I do knowing full well that what I am doing is wrong in my mother’s eyes. Instead of punishing me, sometimes mom would say to me, “I’m going to put you in the hands of the Lord.”

Now, I am a father. My child is an adult. She has her own ideas about what is best for her life. She has the right to choose for herself what she will do with her life. If she decides to do something that I do not think is best, then, I have but one course of action to take. I can put her in the hands of the God.

Our job as parents is to train our children in the way that they should go (Eph. 6:4). Parents have no guarantee that their children will follow the parent’s ideas for their lives. Even after doing the best that we can we cannot be sure that our children will not stray from the path that we have set before them. Everyone has their own mind and God has His own way of getting us to the place that he wants us to be.

In the story of the Prodigal Son the father waits daily for his son to return home. Somehow he knows that God will bring his son to his senses. The son learns his lessons and returns home. The father reluctantly consents to the wishes of his son. He leaves the son in the hands of God. Even the father is in God’s hands. The father is rejoined with his son because he now has a new perspective on life. All alone he has been in God’s hands.

Prayer: We thank You Father that you hold us in Your hands so that we are safe even when we are wrong. Amen.