Praying for Prodigals

Firstly I’m sorry I didn’t post last week. I was planning to on Monday after my girlfriend had gone back home. But I just didn’t know what to write! Then I knew what I was going to write on Friday, but I received some news which totally changed what I was planning and so took a few days to re-think this blog post.

            In the Book of Luke we can read Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son.

Luke 15:11-32 (New International Version)

The Parable of the Lost Son

 ¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

   ¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

   ¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

   “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

   ²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

   ²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

   ²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

   ²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

   ³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

            I can’t get onto my blog here on the ship, but I'm sure in one post I wrote about my life and said that when I was a teenager I left the Army, joined the Navy and moved totally away from God. My life was quite like that of the lost son. I certainly spent my life in wild living, and all it did was get me into trouble and cause me problems.

            Lots has been written on this parable and much has been said about either son and which one was right and which one was wrong. What we do not hear a huge amount about is the Father. There is nothing of the pain and suffering he felt about his son turning his back on him and leaving. Although we do see how overjoyed he was to see him return.

            One thing I’m sure the Father would have spent a lot of time doing is praying for his absent son. The parable does not state this, but I'm sure he would of; and eventually God answered his prayers and his son returned. How about that for showing the power of prayer!

            Years ago I went through a really rough patch in my life. I had just returned from a bad tour of Iraq where I had lost some close friends, my marriage broke down, I was struggling to see my son, and everything just seemed to be against me. To be honest I was in a very bad state, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

            Even though I had not been back to my Corps for years; there was one Corps member who continued to pray for me. She knew I was going through a hard time, and even though she herself had a very ill grown up son, she took the time to write to me.

            I feel totally ashamed now to say the first time my mum gave me a card she had written to me I opened it, read it, ripped it up and threw it in the bin. “What did you do that for?” my mum asked. “Well what do I want that Bible bashing cr*p for?” was my reply. I did have a heart of stone at the time.

            But she continued to write and pray for me, and we developed a strong friendship. She was not the only factor in me becoming a Christian again; but she was a major source of encouragement, support and spiritual guidance for me. Especially when my Gran who had always helped me in that way died.

            This lady became extremely ill herself and fought a long battle for many years with Leukemia  which sadly this week she lost. This news upset me quite a bit, although I knew it was coming it was still hard. I usually don’t get upset when people die, but her death did hit me quite hard. Although I am pleased she is no longer in pain and suffering and she will now be in heaven; I know I will miss her love and support.

           

            It also hurts to have lost someone who was such a positive influence on my life. But it also made me think; who is there now that I constantly pray for? Who is there now that I continue to stay in contact with after they have left the Army?

            The story of the prodigal son as far as I am concerned shows the power of prayer to bring people back into Gods arms. I also feel the story of my life does exactly the same. The effect we can have on other people’s life through prayer and a friendly note every now and again can be massive and life changing. Its one of the reasons I'm sat here a Christian now!

            I would ask everyone who reads this today to just spend a few minutes thinking who they could be encouraging and who could they be praying for. Recently there have been over 100 people a week reading this blog. If everyone who read it did this and chose one person to seriously pray for every day and encourage by notes, e mails or even snail mail, just imagine how many more prodigals we could all bring back to Christ.

The Sailing Salvationist.

Waiting

Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you I hate waiting! I’m not the most patient of people when it comes down to having to sit about and just wait. I think it’s to do with being in the Navy. There is a common saying in the Navy that you wish your life away. You wish it was the weekend, wish you were in the next port and most importantly you wish time would hurry up so you can be back at home!

            Also most people in the Navy are not usually on time; we all get there early. It’s drummed into us from our first day of training; “If your told to be somewhere at 10am youwill be there at 0955 at the latest!” That’s what we call Navy time. So usually everywhere I go im early, which often means im left waiting ages when other people are late. This is also my own fault as I am usually at least 30 minutes early. (Just ask my Corps Officers, im usually at the hall an hour before the meeting.)

            There are some major and amazing things happening in my life at the moment. The only problem is they all involve waiting and being patient. Some of the things I have to wait for are happening soon, others I have to wait at least a year for. Perhaps that’s God trying to make me a better person and teach me patience!

            We are back in port now, and in 3 days time my girlfriend is flying out to see me for a week’s holiday. It’s been booked for weeks, and the waiting has been unbearable! It has seemed like every day has gone slower and slower. But I am sure the week she is spending out here with me will fly by way to quickly. It has been very hard to wait for something so amazing to happen for so long, but slowly it has got closer and soon she will be here.

            I often end up sat about waiting for people, and recently I decided to try and use the time productively and spend it praying; I thought it would be better than sitting doing nothing. It’s amazing how much prayer time you can actually get in when you are just stood about waiting.

            I also decided to have a look in the Bible and see what it said about waiting; unsurprisingly it says quite a lot about it. The favourite part I found was in Psalms;

Psalm 130:5-6

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, yes more than watchmen wait for the morning.

            I think I like this verse because I know what a night watchman feels like. We often have to do late shifts on the ship and the last few hours of a late shift can seem to drag on for hours and hours; each minute seeming like an hour; all you want is for the duty to be over so you can climb into bed.

            It also made me think; am I really hungry for God? Am I really waiting for his Kingdom to come? Am I yearning and getting restless because I am waiting to spend time with him in the same way I am waiting impatiently for my girlfriend to come out here? If I am honest I would probably have to say no.

            But then I flipped it around, just because I am not yearning for God like that all the time; that does not mean he is not feeling that way about me. God longs to be close to us, He yearns to be with us and spend time with us; even if we are not so excited or impatient to spend time with him.

            That’s an amazing and mind blowing thought really; God the creator of the entire world and universe who knows every single person in the world wants and yearns to spend time with us as individuals!

            So next time you are stood about waiting for someone who is late why not pray! Just as you are wishing the person you are waiting for would turn up so you can spend time with them remember; God is waiting patiently to spend time with you! Why not use the time productively and have a chat with the creator of the universe!

The Sailing Salvationist

P.S. Just so you know, due to my little holiday next weeks post will not be on Friday, it will probably be posted on Monday or Tuesday.

Fit for Life, Fit to Fight

 I have been doing a lot of fitness training at the moment. Another guy on the ship and I have been doing a training program called “Insanity” and it certainly lives up to its name! (If you don’t believe me just type it into you tube!) You train 6 days a week with one rest day, due to the heat we have to get up at 5am every morning to train before it gets to hot.

            All this training got me thinking about a program the Army ran a few years back called “Fit for Life”. I think they have run it since, but I have not been home for it. It was a long time ago, but I think the general idea of it was to train people up and equip them with recourses to live a good Christian life.

            In the Navy we have a physical training branch; they have a motto “Fit for Life = Fit to Fight”. Obviously in the Forces it has the meaning that if we are generally fit in life we will already be fit when called upon to fight. However I feel this motto could also be adopted by the Salvation Army. Im not suggesting for a second that every member of the SA starts doing Insanity with me; although I might see if any of the Home League ladies at my corps fancy having a try!

            What I do mean though, is that surely as Salvationists we need to be constantly fit for Spiritual Warfare; we should always be ready and fit to fight. Just as our Army forefathers were; they really did like a good spiritual battle!

            Yes, this also comes from being fit for life, but I believe being fit for the fight is a totally different level of spiritual fitness. Just in the same way that many civilians would consider themselves fit, but strap a 50lb backpack on them, get them to run across the mountains of Wales and they would soon realise to be fit to fight you require a totally different level of fitness.

            So how do we know that we are or that we should be involved in Spiritual Warfare? Well firstly we only need to look at all the pain and suffering in the world to see the enemy has command of many troops! There is so much evil in the world and so many being led in the wrong direction. Secondly the Bible tells us that we are called to Fight the Good fight;

1 Timothy 6:12-16 (New International Version)

¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴ to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honour and might forever. Amen.

            But how do we fight this good fight? I think there are many ways, which depend upon your circumstances and where you are. For example the fight against evil and sin here on the ship is totally different to the fight when I am at home. Many people are called by God into different areas of the fight; just as on a warship there are many different trades and jobs. Each one may seem small or insignificant on its own. However when the ship closes up to action stations it cannot operate or fight efficiently unless everyone is doing their small part. 

            But to be fit to fight we do need to train; and to be effective we need to train hard. Even if it means getting up at stupid o’clock! We need to get our heads deep into the Bible at least every day. We need to pray; pray lots and pray hard! We also need to come together as Christians, because being on a battle field on your own is tough and scary; but in a group the support you get makes things seem better and makes you more effective. 

            There are plenty of resources out there to help you train; the net is full of good Salvation Army sites. It’s worth checking them out and beginning your training; because the thing with training is it takes time and effort. However the sooner you get into training and the harder you train the sooner you will be fit to fight!

The Sailing Salvationist