“So he went and worked for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He was longing to eat the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” —Luke 15:15–16
Have you ever been in a situation where “no one gave [you] anything”? A helping hand would have been nice, or perhaps an encouraging word, or even a look of affirmation. Scared, needy, frightened—and the world just keeps passing by. Not a very fun place to find oneself, particularly if the miseries we are encountering are directly related to our own choices and bad decisions. Selfishness and a lack of good judgment fuel for the fire for difficult situations we find ourselves in. But … God gives us the following hope through the promises in His Word!
“Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.’ So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can people do to me?’” —Hebrews 13:5–6
“No one will be able to resist you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not abandon you or leave you alone. Be strong and brave! You must lead these people in the conquest of this land that I solemnly promised their ancestors I would hand over to them.” —Joshua 1:5–6
“I was once young, now I am old. I have never seen a godly man abandoned, or his children forced to search for food. All day long he shows compassion and lends to others, and his children are blessed.”—Psalm 37:25–26
The riches of God’s grace and mercies are of unspeakable value to the sinner in terrible circumstances. When we come face to face with our own foolishness and weakness, God’s grace and mercy are held out to us.
However, just as God allows for those who pursue holiness and righteousness to experience a taste of heaven on earth through the enjoyment of walking with Him and growing in the knowledge of Him, in love, He also allows those who choose to pursue evil and destruction to experience a taste of hell with the desire for them to turn back to Him.
Matthew Henry writes:
“A sinful state is a state of departure and distance from God. It is the sinfulness of sin that it is an apostasy from God. He set off from his father’s house. Sinners are fled from God. They get as far off him as they can. The world is the distant country in which they take up their residence. It is the misery of sinners that they are far off from God, and are going further and further from him. What is hell itself, but being far off from God?”
The total absence of goodness, the total lack of light, a state of perpetual dissatisfaction; all apt descriptions of hell. We find in Matthew:
“As the poisonous weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The one who has ears had better listen!” —Matthew 13:40–43
God has no desire for any to perish but all to come to repentance. Peter tells us:
“Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day. The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” —2 Peter 3:8–9
Become More
“He who yields a point or two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah. Worldly conformity, in any degree, is a snare to the soul, and makes it more and more liable to presumptuous sins. Careful walking may involve much self-denial, but it has pleasures of its own which are more than a sufficient recompense.” —C. H. Spurgeon
God is waiting for you to turn back to Him!
Further Reflection
“How sweet the remembrance that inexhaustible mercy is waiting to be gracious to us, to restore our backslidings, and make our broken bones rejoice!” —C. H. Spurgeon