Do You Consider Yourself Meritorious? "We have absolutely no spiritual merit at all. Yet by any chance, do we not think that we ourselves are good and virtuous, that we are qualified to be saved, and that we deserve to be blessed by God? But such thoughts are just our own human delusion. When we look at ourselves as reflected on the Word of God, our portrait is completely opposite to our own self-perception. Of the two sons mentioned in today’s Scripture passage, the first son seemed to be a good son: He took care of the house, he helped his father, and he didn’t do anything bad. But how was the second son? He asked for his share of inheritance, went out to the world, and squandered all his possessions. Unable to find any good job, he ended up with the wretched job of feeding sludge There was nothing else for him to eat because of a severe famine. What is worse, he was fired from even this job. The owner fired him, saying, “How can you eat pig sludge? It would be better not to have you here.” What did the son do in the end? He couldn’t make a living in that foreign land, and so he returned to his father; to God. He repented from the depth of his heart, saying, “My father has so many hired servants and workers, and all these servants have plenty to eat. Yet here I am, starving to death after having left my father. I should return to him and say to him, ‘Father, I am too ashamed to call myself your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’” Having thus repented from his mistake, he returned to the father. He had turned his heart around. When the prodigal son made his way home, how did the father react? He looked out from his room and he saw his son far away. Overwhelmed by joy, the father jumped up and ran toward the town entrance without even putting his shoes on, shouting out, “My son!” Too ashamed of himself, the son couldn’t even look at his father, but the father embraced him in his arms, kissed him on his filthy mouth that had eaten pig sludge, patted his back, and received him in joy, saying to him, “My son, I am so glad that you’ve returned.” The father then took the filthy rags off his son and said to his servants, “Throw away all these rags. Bring the best robe in our house and put it on him. Put the best sandals on him as well. Put a ring on his finger. This son is indeed my son. So put a ring on him as a sign of being my son. Slaughter a calf. Play music. Gather together everyone in the town and hold a great feast.” What does all this mean, my fellow believers? It means that the sufferings we endure in our lives—that is, being born, getting old, falling ill, and dying—are all permitted by God so that we would return to Him. It is all by God’s work that people fall ill and live in suffering on this earth, unable to fulfill none of their desires with their circumstances turning against them and their plans remaining unfulfilled. In other words, God’s work is designed to make each and every one of us return to Him. Take a look at today’s Scripture passage here. The land where the prodigal son was residing was visited by a famine, and as a result he was forced to survive on the pods and was fired from even this job. Why do you suppose all this happened? It was because of the will of God that sought to make him return to his father’s home, nearer to God. If the prodigal son had found a good job and prospered in the world, he would have never returned to his father. That is why God brought a famine to that country when he found a job to feed pigs. God made him fired by the owner. In doing so, God brought the prodigal son back to His fold. What does this all mean, my fellow believers? It means that it is the will of God the Father for us to take His best robe, sandals, and ring, to hold a feast, to eat abundant food in His Kingdom, to live there and enjoy glory, and to be honored like this. Indeed, all our sufferings and weaknesses are permitted by God. That is why true salvation can be received from the Lord by those who believe that Jesus is their Savior. They believe that the Lord accepted all their sins by being baptized, dying on the Cross, and has thereby saved them, and that He has saved them perfectly through the water and the blood. Remember this always, that Jesus has saved you and me in this way." Paul C Jong