Great For The Soul - The Prodigal Son

“I will go home to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.’”

Luke 15:18-19

In the 1884 presidential race, Republican candidate James G. Blaine believed that he had Democrat Grover Cleveland on the ropes. It had been revealed that Cleveland, then a bachelor, had fathered a son with the widow Maria Crofts Halpin. In an attempt to paint Cleveland as an immoral man, Republicans distributed leaflets showing an infant with the label “One more vote for Cleveland.” Blaine’s supporters paraded and chanted, “Ma, ma, where’s my pa? Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!”

These moves backfired badly.

Cleveland came out and confessed his indiscretion, which took the issue off the table for Blaine. His openness apparently won over the American people, who elected him president.

The Bible repeatedly teaches the importance of confession and tells us that God is “faithful and just” to forgive those who humbly confess their sins (see 1 John 1:9). Jesus illustrated this point by telling the story of a young man who left a good life on his father’s farm to pursue a life of sin.

Once he had run out of money and had to take work tending the pigs—despised animals who ate better than he did—the young man came to his senses and decided to return home, confess his sins, and humbly ask his father if he could stay on as one of the hired hands (see Luke 15:14-19). His father wouldn’t hear of hiring his own son. Instead, he welcomed his boy back into his home with a celebration (see Luke 15:22-24).

The father’s willingness to welcome his son back into his family showed his love for his son and his son’s willingness to leave the way he had been living.

This is just like our heavenly Father.

Your heavenly Father is more than willing to forgive you when you confess your sins and return home to him. Confession, to God and to others hurt by your actions, is good for the soul. It is the key to reconciliation.