Kenneth Copeland Devotional 9 May 2024 – The Father’s Heart
Topic: The Father’s Heart
But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. – Luke 15:20
Scripture Reading: John 8:1-11
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
How much love do you have for sinners?
That may sound like a strange question, but it’s one I want you to think about today. All too often, once we get saved and get our lives cleaned up a little bit, we lose our compassion for those who are still lost. We look at the drunk stumbling down the street or the guy at the office who lies to the boss and tells dirty jokes and turn up our spiritual noses.
But if we ever truly understood the heart of our heavenly Father, we’d never do that again. Jesus told a story that can give us a glimpse of that heart. It’s the story we call the prodigal son.
You’ve probably heard it many times, how the son rebelled and dishonored his father, and how the father, in spite of it all, received him home with joy when he repented. But there’s one phrase in it I want to draw your attention to today. It’s this one: “But when [the prodigal son] was yet a great way off, his father saw him.”
That phrase gives such a moving glimpse of the heart of that loving father. It tells us that even before his boy had repented, even during those long days when he was up to his eyebrows in sin, that father was watching for him, longing for him to come home.
Every morning he scanned the horizon, hoping to see the silhouette of his returning son. And the last thing every night, he’d look again…straining his eyes in hope. His son was constantly on his mind, and his heart was always full of love for him. The kind of gut-wrenching love that, on the day his son came home, drove that father to run to him and kiss him.
That’s the kind of heart our heavenly Father has for those who are lost. It’s the kind of heart He had for you while you were still wandering in the world. It’s the kind of heart that embraced you with open arms even when you were still covered with the grime of sin.
There’s a whole world full of weary people out there who haven’t yet found that embrace. They’re more than just “sinners,” they’re our potential brothers…lost ones in desperate need of a loving heavenly Father. God forbid we should ever turn up our noses at them. May He help us instead to start bringing them home.
This message was written by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, the leader of the Kenneth Copeland Ministries that specializes in teaching principles of bible faith – prayer, healing, salvation and other biblical topics.