Jesus welcomed the people, taught them about the Kingdom of God and healed those in need. Luke 9:11
His Father Saw Him
by Pam Smith
And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
God our Father sees us, even if we’re a great way off. When He sees us coming to Him it’s as if He runs towards us, just as the father did in the story that Jesus tells in Luke 15.
Every time my son visits me I’m watching and waiting for him. I love to see him and communicate with him. It’s one of my greatest delights. And when I don’t see him for a long time I feel sad. But this teaches me how God must feel when I’m too busy to spend precious time with Him and respond to His love.
He sees us when we worship Him. ‘For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect towards him, so that he can show his great power in helping them’ (2 Chronicles 16:9). Do you ever sing words in Church without thinking what they really mean? So often I find myself carried along singing the words of songs with everybody else but my heart is far away.
Often I can spend more time searching the Scriptures than actually connecting to Jesus. Yet He’s the Word of God, the Living Word. In His presence the Scripture brings a personal message for me. The Holy Spirit makes the Word come alive in my heart. Jesus said to the Jews, ‘You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me, But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life’ (John 5:39-40).
Jesus really wants us to understand the beauty of relationship. Think about the glorious relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is perfect unity and perfect love in the Godhead.
Our Lord always initiates this relationship of love with His people and like the story of ‘the Lost Sheep’ He will always go after the one that’s lost, for His love knows no limits (Luke 15:1-7). God promises His people Israel, ‘I will seek that which was lost, and bring back that which was driven away, bind up the broken hearted and strengthen what was sick’ (Ezekiel 3:16).
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You found me, and brought me back to the fold. May I never forget where I came from and how much it cost You. Help me always to stay connected to You. In Jesus’ Name.
Pam Smith has a background in art and nursing, has a son and two daughters and six grandchildren. She has been a friend and helper of Ellel Ministries since l992, and has been involved with Healing Through Creativity Courses. As writer of the Shepherd Love Series, she has a passion for the comfort and encouragement that leads people towards enjoying abundant Life in Jesus.

Sign Up Now
Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship. Provided full acknowledgement is made to Seeds of the Kingdom as the source, you are also welcome to use it in a non-commercial way and reproduce it in magazines or other Christian websites. The copyright for any commercial use of the material remains with Ellel Ministries International.
The last book in the series concentrates on how to live in God’s vision for our lives and how to persevere in running the marathon race that life is for each one of us. We then look at the final stages of life and the challenge of finishing our race...
This book explains God’s response to man’s sin...
Encouragement enables us to look up instead of down and gives us the determination to keep going whatever our circumstances. These devotionals, built around key verses in the Psalms, reflect on how God encouraged David and provide daily encouragement...
It is vital that we know God as He really is, know ourselves as we really are and understand the strategies of the enemy to undermine the faith of believers. Ground-breaking teaching that equips the saints to live the Christian life in relationship with...
Good foundations are critical for both buildings and our Christian lives. Many Christians have spent little time ensuring that their lives are truly built on the rock of truth. So, this first volume in the series establishes a solid foundation on which...
Book 5 focuses on all the different healings that Jesus carried out and on the different healing principles we can learn from the things that Jesus said and did when healing and delivering people. We see how Jesus seamlessly blended inner healing, physical...
Where do we go for help, when we need God’s wisdom? Our primary source of wisdom must be the Word of God. And within the Bible, the book which encapsulates a wealth of pithy wisdom is the book of Proverbs. This devotional volume provides a rich source...
In Book 7 we see how all the teaching of Books 1-6 together help us focus on how God wants heal each one of us on our Journey to Freedom. In a very practical way we look at the main areas of life where people most need healing and see how, through healing,...
The heart of Book 4 is, simply, Jesus. We look at the prophecies about the coming Messiah, Jesus’s early life, His temptations, the beginnings of His ministry and the call and commissioning of His disciples. Then we learn deep lessons from the final...
All the Gospels culminate in the amazing accounts of Jesus’s death and resurrection. We look stage by stage at all that Jesus did for us on the cross and examine just what His sacrifice means for us today. The Great Commission, the life of the early...