Arguably, the most popular and most preached on story in the Bible is that of the Prodigal Son. And rightfully so as it is a beautiful picture of the way God loves us. But one thing that most people forget about is the story of the older brother, and that's upsetting to me because I'd argue a lot of us identify with him just as much as we identify with the younger son.

Imagine with me for a second:

You are an avid follower of God. You serve in your church so much that you're there more than you are at home. You read your Bible, you pray, you love God with everything you have. One day someone who's walked away from God comes back after being on a long winding road of destruction. They're back and they're ready to have God back in their lives. They get saved one Sunday during service. You are ecstatic for them! Nothing is better than seeing people's lives reconciled to Christ. But it doesn't stop there. All of a sudden over the next few months, God starts blessing them left and right. All of a sudden they have an awesome job, a life-giving romantic relationship, they're leading in the church, and to top it all off: everyone loves them. You know you should be happy for them, but you can't help but wonder why God is blessing them and not you. Aren't you more loyal? You've been here the entire time! How come they get all the stuff you've been praying for and believing for for years? Why did God pull out all the stops for them and not for you? Does He love you less?

Ever been there? I know I have. Although those feelings are very valid, I believe there's one huge issue this reveals about how we view God:

God is not a god of formulas
As humans, I think it's easy to sit and try to calculate where "we've gone wrong" when we see others getting blessed "above" us. But what I think we fail to recognize is that God is not a god of formulas. God's not into algebraic equations when it comes to blessing us. He blesses us not based on what we plug in or bring to the table, but based on things far above what we can understand or comprehend. God's not impressed by the fact that I read my Bible everyday, or serve in my church, or even the fact that I'm obedient because He's not human. He's not into positive reinforcement. He's not someone who blesses based on performance. He blesses based on His grace. And what's more is that given our response, our brother probably understands the true value of grace more than we do. Our brother knows that without grace he wouldn't be home right now living with the restored inheritance he was so quick to give up. He knows that without grace he'd be dead. He knows that anything God blesses him with here on this earth is nothing compared to the saving grace that he's just received from his father. I'd venture to say us "older brothers" have lost sight of that. We've lost sight of the value of grace and the fact that we have the exact same gift that our "younger brother" has, we've just placed it on our shelf to look at instead of carrying it with us and actually treasuring it. We've quite possibly forgotten what God has truly saved us from and the fact that He just wants us to celebrate with our brother. He wants us to stop performing and abide in His love. Let's stop forgetting. Let's actively remember.