Luke 15:20-24
“And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
My family has been full of dysfunction. I know, I know, none of you can relate. One of the hardest things I experienced growing up was watching one of my siblings, in their high school years, rebel against my parents with what seemed to be everything they had. After years of constant conflict, they ran away and hopped from house to house staying on whatever couch friend would lend them. Eventually they ended up in an abusive relationship and having a child. My family prayed constantly for their safety and return. I will never forget the day I got the phone call from my parents that my sibling had returned home, desiring to be a part of the family again. In the middle of it all, it felt like an impossible miracle. When they returned, we knew it was something only God could have orchestrated. Just like the father of the prodigal son, we celebrated.
The months and years to come were still challenging and kept us on our knees–this was not an instant happily ever after story, but God was with our family and in the process of healing our hearts and restoring our relationships. Most importantly, each of us is now following Jesus. Things are not perfect, but we thank God for his intervention and the restorative work he has done in us individually and as a family.
God is the God of restoration. Jesus depicts this so beautifully in the parable of the prodigal son. His heart and desire is for us to be in right relationship first with him and then with one another. You may be in a family that feels broken beyond repair or you may be praying for someone who’s in that place. When we invite God into the process of restoration, he knows what needs to take place in the heart of each person involved to bring forgiveness and healing. He can soften the hardest heart and call someone back from the deepest sin. It may not play out in the way we hope or dream, but his ways far surpass ours.
As we pray for the restoration of families and broken relationships, we want to align our hearts with God’s. We lay aside our preferences, agendas, and dreams about what restoration looks like and how it should be executed and ask God for his will to be done. God is gracious and merciful. His forgiveness is extravagant. Back to Luke 15 and the story of the prodigal son: We see from the older brother the difficulty he had at extending grace to the prodigal. God’s mercy can be a tough thing to extend. Asking God to navigate both sides of restoration is so important. Most of all, let’s pray for all to know Jesus, that like the prodigal, they may go from death to life.
Listening Prayer:
Holy Spirit, please bring to mind broken relationships to pray for. How can I pray for my family and relationships, as well as those you have put on my heart?
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we confess that we are sinful broken people. As such, we can be hurtful and destructive. We hold onto offense and are stubborn in our sin. God we know your heart is for us to love one another. We know you desire to see us walk in forgiveness and you want to see those who have walked away from you return. We ask that you would be intervening on behalf of broken families. Whether it is a child or a parent who has walked away from you, we call them back to you in Jesus’ name. We ask, like the prodigal, that family members would come to a place where they desire to repent for past destructive behaviors and be restored first to you, and then to their families. We pray for all involved in the process of restoration: both for the ones who walked away and the ones who did not. God may all hearts be soft toward you so they can be softened toward one another. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Resource: Bible Verses to Encourage Us as we Pray for Restoration
1 John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Colossians 3:12-14
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Psalm 34:17-18
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Worship Song: