"The longer they're gone, the harder it will be for them to return."
How it sounds in your head: It's been two years. Three. Five. Every month that passes cements them deeper into that lifestyle. The longer the entrenchment, the harder the extraction. Time is working against you. The window is closing. Soon it'll be too late to reverse the trajectory.
"So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you."
-- Joel 2:25Enemy makes TIME the master instead of the Father—implying decay instead of the growing harvest Proverbs 22:6 promises.
You watch roots deepen—new friends, new habits, new identity. The gap between who they were and who they are now keeps widening. Common sense says longer rebellion equals harder return.
This man wasted his ENTIRE LIFE in crime and rebellion—until literally his last breaths. In the final moments, one statement of faith, and Jesus said 'TODAY you will be with Me in Paradise.' No time too long. No moment too late.
I REFUSE the lie that time is working against my child or that longer rebellion means harder return. IT IS WRITTEN that 'I will restore the YEARS the locust has eaten' (Joel 2:25)—God redeems TIME, not just the person. Manasseh rebelled for 55 years and was INSTANTLY restored. The thief on the cross wasted his entire life and got paradise in his last breath. IT IS WRITTEN: 'With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day' (2 Peter 3:8)—He's not counting time like I am. The BARAK blessing doesn't have an expiration date. I declare instant breakthrough regardless of duration. The prodigal party happens in MINUTES.
The Father doesn't calculate difficulty by duration. Whether they've been gone two weeks or ten years, the running speed is the same, the robe is the same, the party is the same. Time is not your enemy.