Wasted Blessings

“And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.” (Lu 15:31-32 AV)

The wealthy father spoke these words to the faithful son upon the return of his wayward brother.  He spoke these words to an envious son because he didn’t realize what he had all along.  Note that all that the father possessed was in the control of the faithful son.  There was nothing the faithful son was prohibited from doing with the remainder of what the father had.  The fatted calf could may have very well been slain, and a party thrown, for the faithful son anytime he wanted.  As far as the father was concerned, what he had, his faithful son had as well.  We often find fault with the prodigal.  As well, we should.  He wasted his father’s living on a self-indulgent life.  Before we empathize too much with the faithful son, in a manner of speaking, he wasted his father’s living as well.  He was too self-righteous to enjoy a bit of the blessing of the father.  He blames his father.  He states that the fatted calf was never slain for him, nor a party thrown.  Well, who stopped him?  What struck me was how ignorant we are of God’s blessings and how under-used they often are.

Isn’t that just like us, sometimes?  We think it more noble to be self-abasing beyond what God might require.  My mother made some extraordinary cutout cookies.  They were to die for.  My wife got her recipe, and it took about eight years before she finally perfected it.  These cookies are so good that we have had professional bakeries asking for the recipe.  At Christmas time, our family would bake and fill a freezer with her cookies.  It was an eight-hour process.  If each batch took ten minutes, you can do the math.  That was a lot of cookies.  As we were baking, she would often leave a few to the side.  She wouldn’t say a word.  She simply left them there.  She intended for us to nibble here and there.  After all, who can bake and decorate cookies without the temptation to eat them?  Some of us had her voice stuck in the back of our heads.  “Don’t eat those before dinner.  You’ll spoil your dinner”.  But she left them there!  She did so out of the kindness of her heart.  Still, our overly active conscience forbade us to nibble until she released them to our pleasure.  We had a blessing right in front of us that was expected to be enjoyed, but because of our lack of initiative, they went uneaten.  This is how we are with God’s blessings sometimes.

Pride, masquerading as humility, is often our enemy.  We don’t deserve God’s blessings.  So, we torture ourselves by refusing His blessings, thinking that somehow He is impressed with our sacrifice.  One has to wonder the reasons behind the faithful son’s sacrifice.  Perhaps he wanted to earn the respect of his father not knowing he already had it.  Perhaps he saw enjoyment as indulgence.  Whatever the cause the loss was his.  His father told him as much.  When the faithful son complained at the lack of pleasure in his life, the father rightly placed the blame right at his feet.  If God has blessed us, there is no sin in enjoying those blessings.  There is no sin is having a life which the LORD has already given.  The key is our focus of life.  For the prodigal, pleasure was what defined his life.  Whereas for the father, pleasure was a benefit and not a goal.  The same could have been true for the faithful son.  We are so blessed, yet the blessings of God often go unused.  Especially the spiritual ones.  We don’t spend time in His word or in prayer.  We pick and choose which church service to go to like we were going out for ice cream.  We have the blessing of service, yet we would much rather spend our time in personal pursuits.  The fatted calf has always been there.  Why not use it?