In this week's prayer about the life of faith we pray God to grant His people to love what He commands, "that our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are to be found." Human beings all over the world, having been won in admiration for an ideal or its leader, or in romantic love for an ideal person, will long for the association to continue, to grow and last. The experience of falling in love and becoming involved in a serious and sacred relationship is so wonderful that we are overwhelmed and want nothing more.
When we fall in love with Christ, the King of Love, and His life of faith, there is nothing we desire more than its continuance. In the prayer we ask for that to happen, and then our hearts are fixed where true joys are found. That word "fixed" stresses the lasting, growing relationship with God and warns us against our being fickle with Him. We recall Jesus's words: "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also."
It is valuable in maintaining that fixed association with God to recall the day of our Confirmation, when God promised He would maintain it and we promised to help Him. On many occasions the great Archbishop John F. Gregg introduced a confirmation service by saying to the congregation: "We are here to confirm and to be confirmed" - thereby reminding us of God's part, and ours, in living by His way of faith, hope, and love.
"Faith is absolutely certain that what it believes is true and that what it expects will come. It is not mere `make believe'. Rather it is the hope which looks forward with utter conviction. The Christian faith is a hope that has turned into certainty. Faith means putting full confidence in the things we hope for, it means being certain of things we cannot see."
The Parable of the Prodigal Son is a wonderful story. As we think about it, praying over its words and meaning, we can learn a great deal that can inspire all who try to be faithful to the loving heavenly Father. Won by His love, they are ashamed when they fail in allegiance. The parable is often called the Parable of the Generous Father. That generous love of the father was the saving of the prodigal son. It acted like a powerful magnet of love does upon one separated from a lover. He had to get back at all costs, even expressing his willingness to be no more than a hired servant.
That urgent need of people of faith to keep in close contact with God is stated in a well known prayer: "that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us." The "falling in love" between people becomes the anchor on which they depend.
"We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to a rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour's love."
W.W.