A Diminished View of God

The Bible tells the story of the prodigal son who decided to get out of the house. He said, in effect, “Dad, I’m out of here. I’m going to go out and do what I want. Just give me my cut of the inheritance now. See you later.”

Then he went out and blew all his money. He ended up in rags, hanging out with a bunch of pigs. But one day he came to his senses and decided to go back to his father’s house.

What is worth noting is that everything the prodigal son was looking for out in the world was found in his father’s house. Judging from his actions, he wanted to have nice clothes. He wanted to enjoy great food. And he wanted to party.

Yet when he returned home, his father said to the servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:22–24 nkjv).

In the same way, we can find everything we need in a relationship with God. The problem is that we’re not spending enough time seeing who Jesus is. When we see who Jesus is, we see what the world is. But if we are only looking at this world and not spending enough time with the Lord, we have a diminished view of God and an exalted view of this world. It should be the other way around.

Of course, you can discover the easy way or the hard way that what God says is true. We can throw our lives away. Or we can live our lives for the Lord and finish the race of life with joy.