Whenever we read or talk about the story of the prodigal son, we tend to focus on the son that made the obvious mistake. We focus on the son the left his father. The one that left the source. But he wasn’t the only son that made a mistake. The brother who stayed also made a mistake. He made the mistake of not appreciating what had always been available to him. Both brothers made different mistakes, but the father loved them both the same. Likewise, we’ve all made mistakes — and our “level” of mistakes never disqualifies us from God’s love and acceptance.

Whenever God gives direction, He follows through. He doesn’t change His mind. He doesn’t lead us astray. The instructions from Him are not what cause us to lose our way or get off track — our decision to listen to other voices is what leads us in the wrong direction. However, the beautiful thing about God’s love is that He’s always there, always waiting. When we decide to seek His leading again, He’s still there to guide us in the right direction — which never changed.

Life has a way of landing us in places we don’t feel we deserve to be in. In Acts 12, Peter found himself in prison. He didn’t “deserve” to be in prison, but he was there nonetheless. In those moments, we can have our doubts about what God is doing. About if He’s even doing anything. But in the end, God will always reveal Himself, His plan, and His direction to us.

In order to make room for Jesus to move, we may have to remove some of what we’re holding onto. What if what Jesus is wanting to do in our lives isn’t what we think He’s wanting to do? What if Him working in and through our lives isn’t how we think he’s going to work? Jesus rode into Jerusalem to a triumphant entry, but the very first thing He did after was disrupt what was taking place in the temple amongst those who thought they had it all figured out.

There are times in our lives where we’ve been facing something for so long, we’re used to it. Times where we’ve put up with something for so long, we no long fight it. Our response has become — ‘it’s always been this way.” And since it’s always been this way, we believe it can’t change. But just because it’s always been this way, that doesn’t mean it has to stay this way. Today can be the day that change begins.

When we feel afraid, when we feel outnumbered, when we feel overwhelmed — we can resort to hiding. We can choose to avoid what we will inevitably have to face. The longer we put it off, the stronger the opposition gets. Hiding is never the answer. Avoiding is never the answer. Victory and freedom come when we finally get tired of hiding, and we choose to attack.