The Father’s Heart 2

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. (Proverbs 22:1)

We were dealing with the good son’s conversation with his father after the prodigal returned. I want us to look at that heart inheritance in a different way, especially the fact that God expects us not only to inherit His bounty, but also to share the inheritance of that heart to a seeking world.

You see, God not only delights in giving us things; He especially delights seeing us overflowing His nature.

That is why such verses are in the Bible.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

God goes beyond the act to the motivation which the source of the act. You can do all the acts righteousness demands but still be wicked (Matthew 7: 21 – 23).

God is interested in your doing good when it is the product of your being good. Remember God telling Samuel where He looks when choosing a leader?

The essence of what I am saying is that God wants us to inherit His heart, or, to make it easier to understand, His nature. That is what was lacking in the loyal son in the Prodigal Son parable.

Let me give an example.

All my life I have known my mother to be prayerful and gentle. As I have said elsewhere she got saved about the time I was born and took God extremely seriously. Though she never went to school, she values scripture tremendously and obeys whatever it says.

As an example, none of us her children can forget the discipline we got when our tongues slipped and said something others casually say. As a result there are words and things my mouth can never imagine speaking even now.

Aside from that, my early years were in a (formally colonial) village (almost a slum) and so friction among neighbors over this or the other was unavoidable, especially with so many children around.

What I know from that time was that when there was a conflict or argument involving my mother, any bystander would conclude even without listening to the case that my mother was the offended party. That for a mother raising eight children singlehandedly was exceptional.

Christ had so endued her with His nature that everybody knew her as a godly woman, even to date in her nineties.

That is what comes to mind when I think of a heart inheritance from our Father in heaven, something I pray becomes my inherent heritage even as I serve Him.

I remember her when I take offense at something or someone, knowing that it is possible to be quiet even when I have an abundance of words pushing to come out and sense pleading to be expounded.

My niece (Caroline Bongo) has sang a song featuring her though in vernacular.

It comes from the beatitudes. She says that my mother inspired her by her life as she read that passage. My mother, though not alone, is a rare believer nowadays though Christ expects each of us to be like that. It is a deformity on our part to live different from that. It simply means that we have refused to access that inheritance.

As an example do you know that what we call the Good Samaritan was just ‘a certain Samaritan’ in Christ’s parable? Does it then not mean that any Christian neighbor ought to be like that?

We have to be willing to inherit the Father’s heart. That is the only way we will be able to take over everything He has for us without having any regrets.

Then we will be able to rejoice when the wayward return back home. Then we will be excited when our enemies want to join our family. And then will be excited enough for the lost as to be willing and ready to spend and be spent for their salvation and reconciliation.

When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household, saying, 'These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!' "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a denarius? Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you. Isn't it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?' So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 20: 11 – 16)

And we won’t mind the rewards latecomers receive though we have labored longer.

When like the good elder son we become fixated on our rights (a kid for my crowd), it can easily mean that we are too immature to realize that everything the Father has belongs to us, especially because we have been faithful. But it also means that we have a very narrow view of who the Father is. We forget that part of our inheritance is handling His relationships (business deals in worldly terms) since part of growth is running the estate or empire depending on where you are looking from.

Let me close where I started.

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. (Proverbs 22:1)

This is a clear indication that to God, heart inheritance beats any other inheritance hands down.

Will we pursue that inheritance?