Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

I have written before about the power of prayer and how it's in your interests to read the Bible and pray . This is because you get to know God better, and He is a marvelous counselor. You get better discernment in what to do in various life situations, big and small. In the past, I used to think that if I read the Bible and prayed, it would please God. It does please him, but you should be aware that it is YOU who receives the benefits of your Bible reading and your praying, not God. In other words, God is not improved by knowing you, but you are improved by knowing God. So even if you were being purely selfish, you'd still want to pray and read the Bible, because YOU get to reap the benefits of it (not God). If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog: If Jesus needed to pray, we have an even greater need to do it The power of prayer What happens to your prayers?

The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most well-known parts of the Bible. It's a story that Jesus taught about a son who asks for his inheritance early, leaves home, squanders his inheritance, is left in abject poverty, and then realizes he would be better off working as a servant for his father than where he currently is right now. So he travels to his father, who greets him with open arms and prepares a feast for him.  The prodigal son's brother, however, is jealous. The brother reminds his father that he has always lived with his father yet the father has never prepared a feast for him and his friends. Let's take a look at this often-overlooked part of this parable - the father's response to the brother: Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”’ Luke 15: 31-32 In this parable, we ar...