Have you interpreted a relationship with God as a religious set of rules that have left you feeling insignificant, out of control, insecure, and discontent?

In one of the greatest stories ever told, Jesus described an elder son with a stone heart, one that was legalistic, rigid, and immovable. The father offered the same satisfaction of the stonehearted elder son’s desires that he had provided in the four images restoring his sand-hearted younger son. Let’s examine the text from Luke 15:31-32.

“My son” demonstrates significance translated in the love of the father for his son pictured in sandals covering his elder son’s feet.

“You are always with me” reveals control translated in the power of the father noted in the ring that would always be on his elder son’s finger.

“Everything I have is yours” illustrates security translated in the truth of the father providing all that his son had needed, evidenced in the father’s robe draping over his elder heir.

The father’s plea, “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” points to contentment translated in the father’s peace symbolized by the calf reconciling two lost sons with the community, totally at the father’s expense.

The father offered restoration of his elder son’s stone heart through the transformation of his desires.

Are you a stonehearted older brother? Is it time for you to discover the relational clay heart of the Father? Humbly receive His gift of love, power, truth, and peace in Christ.

Episode 97: Delivered with Linda McCrary from mitchkrusetv on Vimeo.

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