Day 14 | You Never Stopped Belonging

Scriptures & Overview

Luke 15:17–20

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! I’ll get up, go to my father…’ So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.”

The turning point in the Prodigal Son’s story was not merely repentance; it was return. The son came to his senses and recognized that the life he had built apart from his father could not sustain him. Yet it was not awareness that broke the power of the false identities he had embraced. It was returning home. Though he had lived as a rebel, a wanderer, and eventually a servant in his own mind, he had never stopped being a son. The father did not create a new identity for him when he returned. He welcomed him back into the identity that had been true all along.

Romans 8:15–16

“You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

The Christian life begins with adoption. Before God is known as Provider, Healer, Shepherd, or King, He is known as Father. Our identity flows from relationship with Him, not from our successes, failures, struggles, or circumstances. His love is perfect, so nothing we can do could make Him love us more (or less) than when He first called us out of darkness into His light.

2 Corinthians 5:17

 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”

God does not define us by what we have been through. In Christ, we are given a new identity. While struggles may describe part of our experience, they no longer have the authority to define who we are. This is why we put off the old ways handed down to us from our forefathers to put on the new ways by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Devotional

One of the enemy’s favorite tricks is convincing us that what we are experiencing is who we are.

The addiction becomes our identity. The anxiety becomes our identity. The failed marriage derails our identity. The depression becomes our identity. The financial stress or mistakes becomes our identity. Before long, we stop saying, “I am struggling with this,” and start saying, “This is who I am.”

Jesus tells a different story:

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, a young man leaves his father’s house determined to build an identity apart from his father. Before leaving, he demands his inheritance, basically telling his father that he’s taking too long to die. He spends his inheritance in a far-off country and loses everything, including those he mistook for friends. Eventually, he finds a job feeding pigs—a calculated insult to a Jew—and envies the pigs their food.

At that moment, the son reaches a conclusion many of us reach in our own failures: What am I doing here?

He’s tried several identities, none of which turned out well: generous and wealthy man, party animal, rejected friend, and destitute beggar. Now he thinks of a new one: a servant in his father’s household. At least they have a place to sleep and food to eat! So he begins his return home, rehearsing a speech the whole way that confesses his mistakes and asks to be hired as a servant.

Notice what happened. Before he returned home, he had already rewritten yet another identity. He still wasn’t thinking like a son. Now he was thinking like a servant.

But his father has been watching for him. When he sees the shadowy figure on the horizon a long way off, the father hikes up his garment and runs to him. He doesn’t shame his son in front of others. He doesn’t make the son come to him. And the father completely ignores the son’s attempt to negotiate a lower position. Before the speech is finished, the father embraces him, calls for celebration, places a robe on his shoulders, a ring on his finger to show his authority in the family, and sandals on his feet.

Why? Because the son never stopped being a son.

He tried on many identities. Rebel. Wanderer. Failure. Servant. None of them were true. The only identity that remained true throughout the entire story was son.

Many of us do exactly what the prodigal did. We define ourselves by our wounds, our temptations, our diagnoses, our failures, our family history, or our current struggles. Yet none of those things have the authority to name us.

The struggle is real. The pain is real. The battle is definitely real. But it is not who you are.

When you belong to Christ, you are a son or daughter of Abba Father. That identity remains true on your best day and your worst day. It remains true in victory and in struggle. It remains true while you are overcoming and while you are still learning how to do so.

The path forward begins where it began for the prodigal: coming to your senses and returning to the Father. Identity is not something you can construct. Identity is Someone you return to.

Reflection Questions

1. What struggle, circumstance, or failure have you been allowing to define you?

2. If you truly believed you were a beloved son or daughter of God, how might you approach that struggle differently this week?

Prayer

Father, thank You that my identity is not determined by my failures, struggles, wounds, or circumstances. Thank You that through Christ, I have been adopted into Your family. Help me come to my senses wherever I have believed lies about who I am. Teach me to see myself through Your eyes and to live from the identity You have given me. When I am tempted to define myself by what I am going through, remind me that I belong to You. Thank You that I am always welcomed home. Amen.

Devotional Written By: Cathy Colver Garland