Daily Devotional

A couple years back we were on a vacation in Southern California. While down there we made a trip to the beach. We walked out on the pier and watched the surfers in the water below. Some were doing amazing and successfully riding waves, and some were getting tossed around and knocked off their boards. After watching this for a while, my oldest daughter Melina said, ”You know what I like about surfers? No matter what, they always get back up.”

I’ve never gone surfing, but I certainly know what it feels like to get knocked by a metaphorical wave in life. That’s inevitable and we can’t control when it happens or how it happens. What we can control is whether or not we get back up. There are times where we are doing everything as we should and still not seeing the results we want. In those times we can choose to believe what’s in front of us or choose to believe that God is doing something behind the scenes. We can grow weary or we can paddle out and get back up.

When I think of someone who grew weary in doing good, I think of the older brother from the story of the Prodigal Son. We know about the younger brother, I mean, the story is named after him but remember that the story begins with Jesus saying, “There was a man who had two sons.” The younger son insults the father by asking for his inheritance early, then proceeds to blow the money on prodigal living, and then finally returns home, at which point a huge party is thrown. Meanwhile, the older son is doing what he’s always doing, working. He returns from another day out in the field to the sounds of music and dancing. When he inquires from a servant about this, he’s told his brother has returned and a party has been thrown in his honor.

All he can think about is how he’s served faithfully and received nothing in reward for all the good he’s done. The interesting thing is that this older brother actually had been rewarded, just not yet. Everything that the father had would someday be his. All the hard work and energy that he's poured into his father’s land will be someday benefit him. It wasn’t his yet, but it would be. The problem was he was stuck in the middle. He had worked, yet not received and in that middle space he had grown weary of doing good.

If our focus is on ourselves then it’s easy to feel like that older brother but instead we should shift our focus onto the promises of God. We are heirs of our Heavenly Father and we will someday experience all the blessings that come with that. Right now, we are in the middle, but we can’t stop here. We might get knocked off the board sometimes, but we have to get back up, paddle out, and know that we will eventually catch the wave of God’s blessing.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.