A prodigal's journey back home

A prodigal is someone who has gone astray from God and His ways, his truth. Scripture tells us, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” This tells us that before we came into this world, before our Heavenly Father formed us in the womb, He already knew us spiritually.

I was once a prodigal, and maybe you are now. When people hear the word prodigal, they usually think of the story in the Bible, and yes, that is exactly what I mean. No, I didn’t exactly wish to eat the pig's food, but I did come to the end of myself, and that was the moment God stepped in. I had nowhere else to run. I tried everything I could find in the world, worldly knowledge, labels, and I even prayed to God here and there, but the day I truly broke down with every inch of my heart was the day I was betrayed and abandoned by my spouse. That was where God met me, and that was where my journey back home began.

As God began to open my eyes, I started to realise that I had been a prodigal all along. All that time, I thought I was a Christian, but my heart was far from God. I didn’t really know Him. I didn’t even realise I was deep in sin, in the same way the prodigal was eating with the pigs, because I had normalised things God never intended me to live in.

God then began to teach me about the reality of both the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Heaven. My eyes and ears were opened, and I began to truly know Him.

I returned to my Father wholeheartedly, and in that return, I came to understand my identity in Christ. I now know I am a son, and my relationship with the Holy Spirit, God the father and Christ the Lord continues to grow from strength to strength.

I have learned that this walk is about the heart towards God, about loving Him with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is what God desires for every lost soul: that they would return home to Him first, because it is only from that place that He can restore the plans and promises He has for their life.