"The years I wasted partying are gone forever; I can't recover lost time."
How it sounds in your head: You're 35 and just now getting serious about God. Others started at 16 and are miles ahead. You'll always be playing catch-up, always behind, never making up for the decade you threw away on clubs and hangovers.
"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 2:25Source: Linear time-based thinking that contradicts God's redemptive power to restore 'the years the locust has eaten' instantaneously.
She looks at peers who've been in ministry for fifteen years while she's just starting, and the math feels impossible. Every birthday reminds her of the gap between where she is and where she 'should' be.
Manasseh reigned 55 years doing MORE evil than pagan nations—sacrificed his own sons, practiced witchcraft, filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. He repented in his final years, and God IMMEDIATELY restored him, accepted his prayer, and brought him back to Jerusalem.
I REFUSE the lie that my wasted years are lost forever. IT IS WRITTEN that God restores the years the locust has eaten—not in slow recovery but in SUPERNATURAL ACCELERATION. I am a BRANCH connected to the VINE, and fruit doesn't require decades; it requires CONNECTION. IT IS WRITTEN in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that I am a NEW CREATION; old things PASSED AWAY, all things became NEW. The BARAK blessing doesn't calculate my age or count my lost years—it declares I am blessed coming in and going out, and my latter days will be GREATER than my former.
The Father isn't tallying the years you 'wasted'—He's been preparing the fattened calf during every single one of those years, WAITING for this moment. The moment you turned toward home, He started the INSTANT restoration party, and you'll receive in days what others took decades to find.