Lynn Mosher

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Prodigal: Doesn’t Mean Exactly What We Think It Means

April 3, 2017 By Lynn H Mosher

“And not many days after, the younger son gathered
all together, journeyed to a far country,
and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”
Luke 15:13 NKJV

I’ve been working on a project on prayers. Prayers for when you just can’t pray. I think my title will be 31 Days of Prayers: for When You Just Can’t Pray. I’m thinking of doing it as a thank-you giveaway for those who subscribe or have already subscribed to my posts.

I had most of the topics I wanted to use but I thought I’d better ask others what they would like to see included. I didn’t want to leave out something others thought important. So, I asked on Facebook and got a lot of great responses. One had to do with praying for prodigals. Which I had already listed.

I’ve been pondering on this topic for a while because I knew it didn’t mean what we all think it means. Well, it has become what we think and the way we use it. However, the English definition is the same as the one in the Bible and is different than the way we normally use it.

The Greek word for prodigal is used only once and means dissolutely (meaning indifferent to moral restraints, given to immoral or improper conduct, licentious, dissipated).

The English dictionary describes prodigal as wastefully or recklessly extravagant, giving or yielding profusely, lavishly abundant, loose living, wastefulness, spending more than one’s means, a person who spends, or has spent, his or her money or substance with wasteful extravagance, a spendthrift.

Webster’s 1881 dictionary defines it as to squander away, expending money or other things without necessity, wasteful, expended to excess.

Different Bible versions use a different word. For instance:

The King James version uses riotous. The New King James Version says prodigal. The New Living Translation translates it as wild living. The Amplified interprets it as reckless and immoral living.

According to all this, many more live a prodigal life than we think.

Let’s think about this for a second.

The Lord has given us not only an eternal Home with Him but the inheritance of Himself as well. And along with that, come gifts.

On occasion, aren’t we guilty of squandering those precious gifts of the Lord, whether physical or spiritual? But sometimes, we aren’t aware we are allowing them to go to waste. We need to ask the Father to make us aware of any wrongdoing.

Other times, our loose living and distance from the Father is quite obvious. We leave His house and take that slippery path of luring into the far country, where the harlots of worldly pleasures beckon and call.

After spending all on our physical wants and desires, we end up in a famine.

Do we stay in that far country, separated from the Father? Or do we come to our senses before it’s too late and return home to the Father, asking His forgiveness?

As the father in the parable welcomed his son home, our heavenly Father welcomes us Home and there is always a celebration.

Is there a harlot that lures you away from God’s path? Wooing you to the country of prodigal living?

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2 Comments

Comments

  1. bluecottonmemory says

    April 3, 2017 at 12:50 pm

    The first year I blogged, God put on my heart to write about what it was like to have been the mother of the prodigal. It was a hard, scary post because it made me so very vulnerable. I agree that each of us has something that takes our focus off God, something we wrestle with. It could be the small comforts in the daily. It could even be snuggling down with a good book if it takes us away from something God wants us to do. One of the things I associate with the prodigal story is the heart-ache of the parents whose offspring are seemingly lost from God’s plan. We don’t associate reckless lifestyles as maybe a lifestyle that through the pain and sufffering it ultimately causes these offspring to actually come closer to God. I know I’m going in lots of different directions, but you’ve hit upon a topic that is close to my heart! I look forward to your devotional! Will it be out by summertime?

    Reply
    • Lynn H Mosher says

      April 3, 2017 at 1:34 pm

      Thank you, my sweet friend, for your wonderful words. I agree about the heartache. Christian parents suffer immensely when a child (or children) are off on their own path. Thank you for being interested in my prayer/devotional book. Truly blesses me! ❤

      Reply

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