After all I’ve done, could God ever forgive me? After all of the thoughts I’ve had in my heart, would God ever want me back? After all that I’ve done for the wrong motives and the distanced place that I’ve kept God in my life, why would He ever want to forgive me and take me back?
It is certain that we will never understand in this life (and perhaps not even completely in the next life) the depth of God’s love! Why would He ever forgive me? Why would He ever want me back? I can’t understand it, and I have a hard time even explaining it! But, don’t you figure that was the same reaction that the prodigal son had to his father’s forgiveness? “His father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him…and they began to be merry” (Luke 15:20, 24). Imagine being the son — “But father, how could you ever forgive me? How could you ever take me back?” The father’s response in verse 24: “This. My. Son.”
Aren’t you glad that “He is tender and loving and patient with me”?