Come to Yourself and Turn (Part II of II)
By Chris Voss
Luke 15:17, But when the young man came to himself (his senses) he said, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and even some to spare, and I perish here with hunger.”
In one way or another, we are all like the wayward son (discussed in part I). We focus our lives on the pleasures of life and what we can get for ourselves. We pursue our own selfish goals, searching restlessly, relentlessly until we completely weary ourselves. Only after we are at the end of the road (in the pigpen of life) and there are only memories and questions and no answers, are some of us open to the idea of God, as our eternal Father, and heaven, as our eternal home. Unfortunately, so very few use that moment of brokenness in life to sincerely connect to their heavenly Father. For to connect to the holy Father, one must “come to himself” and turn their life in the opposite direction, a direction that requires obedience to holy laws and values that are mocked and ridiculed by the world, yes, even by our families and friends.
Matthew 18:1-3, On that day the disciples came to Jesus, “Who then,” they said, “is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child and made him stand in the middle of them, and said, “This is the truth I tell you – unless you turn and become as children, you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Jesus said, “…unless you turn.” He was warning the disciples that they were going in the wrong direction, away from the Kingdom of Heaven and not toward it. In life it is all a question of what a man or woman is aiming at; if they are aiming at personal exaltation of themselves, thinking only of themselves, they are aiming at precisely the opposite direction of the Kingdom of Heaven.
For to be a citizen of the Kingdom means the complete forgetting of self, the obliteration of self, the spending of self in a life which aims at service and not at power. So long as each of us considers our own selves as the most important person in the world, our backs are turned on the Kingdom. If we ever want to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, we must “come to our senses,” to ourselves, and “turn” around the direction of our lives and face them in the opposite direction.
Have you turned your back on Jesus and His kingdom because you have not forgiven someone for what they did or said to you today, yesterday, or years long passed? Have you turned your back on Jesus and His Kingdom because you refuse to say, “I’m sorry,” for something you did today, yesterday, or so many years ago?
Have you turned your back on Jesus and His Kingdom because you selfishly think only of yourself and seldom of others?
There are countless reasons why we may turn our backs on our Savior and Lord and His kingdom. But it is never too late, no sin too great to “come to yourself” and realize you have a foolish and hard heart and “turn” your life toward the Holy Kingdom.
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Chris Voss is a pastor at First Christian Church, 317 S. Main, Donna.