I rebelled during my prodigal days.

I was a victim of backsliding. Backsliding is a slippery slope. However, it is a slope and not a cliff. Some say I was probably never saved which is most likely. Others say, I rebelled and back-sliding to my old nature like a prodigal son. Either way, no matter how you look at it, God woke me up. The best thing I know about my Lord and Savior is that He loves the sinner like me. He has always loved the outcast-and for that I should be glad, for I, too, was once an outcast. During my "prodigal days", I lost my personal relationship with God simply because I rebelled and went my selfish ways. My actions brought me to to the bottom. With that, I have learned that being humble and lowly in my own eyes have brought me to understand. I understood my spiritual desire and confessed my guilt, and thirst after Jesus Christ. I mourned but now I am happy because my godly sorrow have brought me true repentance with humble mind, and continual dependence for acceptance on the mercy of Jesus Christ. I understood that I lost my "relationship" with God by playing with "sin"; I blindly stumbled through this dark world. God send the Holy Spirit, who convicted my heart causing me to repent. With the Holy Spirit, I have new life, new hope, new enjoyments, new interests, new purposes, and satisfying spiritual goals. When God first made man in His own image and when man sinned, that image of God disappeared. Now, with Jesus Christ, God is remaking me in His image. As a Christian, I am like the prodigal son who have "accepted" his father's forgiveness. Christ's death for us removes our sins and scrubs clean our consciences. It is time for me to bury my regrets and start serving Lord Jesus Christ! My heart that has been delivered from sin should not feel regreted but accept Christ's wondrous gifts of relief. My attitude of "returned prodigal" honors and submitting to my father more by rejoicing . In Luke 15, I was like this prodigal son which God have placed me where I was that I need to get out. God put me at the bottom which made me humbled that brought me to my senses. Like the prodigal son went back to his father with this attitude: "Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand." The prodigal son's father responded with this attitude: "My son is here--given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!". I truly believed that God have responded the same way when I decided to go back to Him. The parable of the prodigal (backsliding) son shows the nature of repentance, and God's readiness to welcome and bless all who return to Him.