The longsuffering love of God

I taught the parable of the Prodigal Son in Sunday School this morning, drawing attention to the longsuffering love of our Lord: in that no matter what we have done, He will still forgive and receive us if we repent and return to Him.

However, I did try to qualify the lesson by stressing the fact that wouldn’t it be better had we not disobeyed or turned away from Him. Isn't it much better if we had not been lost and stranded like the Lost Sheep, lost and forsaken like the Lost Coin or lost and suffering like the Prodigal Son? But even if we did, He will still receive us if we return to Him and seek for forgiveness, and seek we must.

The memory verse is taken from Psalm 86:5, "For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you."

“For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive.” Good at giving and forgiving; supplying us with his good, and removing our evil. Here was the great reason why the Psalmist looked to the Lord alone for his joy, because every joy-creating attribute is to be found in perfection in Jehovah alone. Some men who would be considered good are so self-exaltingly indignant at the injuries done them by others, that they cannot forgive; but we may rest assured that the better a being is, the more willing he is to forgive, and the best and highest of all is ever ready to blot out the transgressions of his creatures. “And plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.” God does not dispense his mercy from a slender store which perchance may be so impoverished as to give out altogether, but out of a cornucopia he pours forth the infinite riches of his mercy: his goodness flows forth in abounding streams towards those who pray and in adoring worship make mention of his name. David seems to have stood in the cleft of the rock with Moses, and to have heard the name of the Lord proclaimed even as the great lawgiver did, for in two places in this Psalm he almost quotes verbatim the passage in Exodus 34:6 – “ The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”
~ Charles Spurgeon

Maeghan
Picture by Ali Taylor