Luke 15:17
And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

The prodigal son sought this life apart from his father, but he saw that living that way only leaves him hungry.  He had sought to live this life of pleasure, certain it would bring him satisfaction, but it didn’t last long.  He ran out.  He came up empty.  When he left the place he should have been to seek his own, he thought there was freedom there.  But what he found was bondage, lack, misery and struggle.  And when he finally comes to his senses, his first realization is that those in his father’s house always have enough.

Sometimes it takes getting to that most empty and desperate place before we realize how much we need God, our Father.  When we lose everything we thought would bring us fulfillment, we realize just how much we’ve given up to seek our own way apart from Him.  This world will only take and take from us until we find ourselves starved and cast aside.  All we have will be used up, and there is nothing else to replenish what we’ve wasted so foolishly.  There’s just never enough.

So, will we come to our senses?  If we’ve spent too much time wandering outside of our Father’s gates, it’s time to go home.  If we’ve wasted the portion we had and found ourselves hungry and needy, let’s remember how much fullness resides in Him.  If we’ve gone astray from Him at all in even the smallest way, there will be an empty spot there that only He can fill.  So let’s not stay in this place, wallowing in the muck, hungry, alone and cast aside, but let us return to the abundance of our Father.

There is always enough, and more than enough, when we’re looking to God to supply.  When we dwell near to Him, we have all we need.  When we’re looking to Him and seeking Him, we’re not left hungry and desolate.  So let’s make that choice to reside close to our Father all the days of our lives.  The prodigal son found out for himself the cost of seeking something apart from his father, and we can apply that lesson he learned to our own lives.  Is it worth it to walk away from God and risk getting to that desperate place?  Or will we understand that we’ll find all we really need in Him?