Stop Talking!

 January 25, 2023

Yesterday at our pastors’ prayer time in Jamestown, son Nathan began to read the story of the Prodigal Son. He didn’t read the entire parable, which is really a story of two sons; instead, he zeroed in on the wandering son in what to me was a very different way. Here’s the story:

“Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ 

“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.”

—Luke 15:11-24 

Nate pointed out that when the son returned home, he began his rehearsed speech, but his father cut him off, and for the first time, someone other than the wayward son speaks. Everything changed when the son stopped talking and started listening. He was willing to settle for servanthood when the father was restoring his Sonship.

How often are our prayers so full of our words that we can’t hear our Heavenly Father saying, “Bring on the best! My son was dead, and is alive again, he was lost and is found!” We are so busy rehearsing our own words that we miss God’s living word to us. Everything changes when we stop talking and listen to God. Don’t miss that. EVERYTHING changes when we stop talking and start listening to God.