Categories: Beyond
      Date: Nov 14, 2008
     Title: Our Prodigal Father

The most important thing we can do for our children is pray that God will give them wisdom.

Our Father’s heart is prodigal. That is, its abundance is overflowing. As the prodigal son was loose in His spending, so our Father is loose in His loving, in His giving. The prodigal son was not just prodigal, but profligate. He took what his father had given him and wasted it. He burned through his inheritance, rather than investing it. Prodigality, however, doesn’t describe simple waste, but a posture of overflowing abundance. Our Father can be prodigal without being profligate for this simple reason: His wealth comes through the power of His Word. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills not because of shrewd investments nor even hard work. Instead, He owns them because He spoke the hills into existence, even as He spoke the cattle into existence. When He gives, He does not run out of things to give. We serve an infinite God of infinite plenty.  {$pullquote}

Of course, God’s bounty is not measured by mere money. What He has, what He gives, is, according to God’s Word, more precious than gold and silver. James tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him” (1:5). That’s one prodigal promise. The plain meaning of this text is shocking, stunning. It seems to say that those of us who wish to be blessed with wisdom need only ask for it and God will give it to us. Go on. Give it a try. Ask Him. Now, here’s His answer: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. Wisdom begins, according to His Word, with fearing Him. Fearing Him means we must believe Him. When He speaks, we reply, “Amen.” And He has spoken this astonishing promise. We are called to believe it. We ought not take promises like these and seek to make them safe and reasonable. Instead, we are to believe them.

And if we are wise, we will believe them as well for our children. It is my habit regularly in prayer to ask God to bless me with wisdom and to bless each of my children with wisdom as well. It is likewise my habit to give my children this wisdom: I tell them that this is what they ought to be praying for.

 As homeschooling becomes ever more mainstream, as it becomes safe and respectable, a greater number of us find ourselves doing it for safe and respectable reasons. We decide to homeschool because our local government schools are weak academically. We think we can train well the minds of our children that they might score well on their college boards, get into the best universities, in turn get the best jobs, and then enjoy the great American dream. In short, fools that we are, we homeschool as a means to this end: getting our children more silver and gold.

Were we wise, we would want more for our children. An earthly father who loves his children will want for them treasure that moth and rust cannot destroy. We would want for them wisdom from above. We would wake up each morning asking ourselves this question: What can I do today to give my children a rich inheritance of wisdom? We would go to bed each night resting in God’s prodigal promise. We would pray that God will give our children wisdom.

Read through the Proverbs. Then read them to your children. Then, ask God to help you not just to understand them, but to believe them. Ask that He would do the same for your children. Do not work this into your curriculum. Make this your curriculum. No, not just your children’s curriculum, but your own. God’s promises are not slack. You will be blessed. Your children will be blessed. Your grandchildren will be blessed. In all your getting, get wisdom. You will be glad you did. And your children, speaking in wisdom, will rise up and call you blessed.