Prayers for Prodigals

“Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plains and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.” Genesis 13:12

Many of us pray for prodigals. We may have birthed them and raised them. They grew up in our homes and will always be in our hearts. Some of our prodigals are parents who taught us better, but do not live out what they have spoken in the past, seemingly fallen from grace. A friend who once sat in church beside us may be the prodigal we just can’t forget in prayer. Now they live different lives and we find ourselves distanced from them.

Prodigals. The word itself means to be characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure. It can also mean one who has returned after an absence. Prodigals seem to be recklessly “spending” their faith on trinkets and tinsel and they are never satisfied. God is far away in a dim past and they are living large, doing those things that are appealing and attractive to them. Faith is forgotten.

We all know the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. We read it and it gives us hope that our prodigals will awaken one day and long for home and the Father’s house. We pray and hope with expectation for that day of return.

This passage about Lot gave me pause. The chapters in Genesis speak of a Lot who puts his own interest above all else. Lot compromises. Lot puts up with stuff he should be walking away from. Lot is looking for comfort and ease. Eventually he is living in a city so very wicked that God visits it in fiery judgment. And he has to be dragged away in the midst of excuses and rationalizations, still arguing with God about where he should go. He gets drunk. He fathers children by his own daughters. It’s not pretty.

Note that Lot is not living like righteous Abraham is. Lot wants his own place, his own flocks, his own family, and his own way. He has departed.

And yet, in Sodom he is not comfortable. Despite everything, he just doesn’t fit in. He is mocked and he is resented. He cannot fully embrace these ways of wickedness. Something still glimmers in his soul for what he has known of goodness and kindness and justice. He is trying to live in two worlds. He has compromised, but he has not forgotten the ways of God.

To all appearances, Lot is in the wrong place and has made all the wrong choices, and yet…God is still working. God sees and knows the deepest places of Lot’s heart. Ah, but God!

“…and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who would afterward live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, (for that righteous man dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation…” (2 Peter 2:6-9).

Righteous Lot! That righteous man! His righteous soul! The grace of God abounds in ways we can barely grasp. God never gave up on Lot. Sure, there were consequences of his sin, but God delivered Lot! And I feel a great assurance that He is well able to deliver our prodigals.

Father, I pray you would make those who appear to have moved away from You uncomfortable in the world. May they soon be delivered. May they soon journey back to You. We eagerly await that day. Amen.