My Testimony- Part 1

Hey guys! I’m doing another series! I have several people who have agreed to write their testimonies for me to post. Over the next month or so I will be sharing those with y’all. I hope and pray that these will encourage you and that the Lord only will get all the glory! (And no, I’m not just saying that, I really want Him to get all the glory)

Today I will be sharing my own testimony. Sooo here goes nothing!

I’m gonna start off pretty basic and you have probably heard many people begin their testimony with this, but hey, this is how the Lord worked in my life. I grew up with Christian parents, and they taught me the bible and the importance of Christianity. I went to several different churches, but most of them were non-denominational. Growing up in a Christian environment, I went to Sunday school, VBS (vacation bible school) and everything else.

One particular summer when I was 8 years old, I was at VBS and towards the end of the week, I decided to give my life to the Lord. I told my family and they were obviously excited for me, and a couple weeks later (on Father’s day) my dad baptized me at our local church in Tupelo MS.

From that point on, nothing was really different in my life. Sure, I had “given my life to Jesus”, but was I really rejoicing in it? Was I really following Him? No.

Fast forward a few years, I’m 12. Summer of 2019. A friend of mine had invited me to her church’s VBS, and I of course went because I love going to VBS! Out in the country, this little white church up in the mountains of North Carolina, we played games, sang songs, ate food, but in the midst of it all the Lord began tugging on my heart and convicting me of saying I was a Christian but not really acting like it. Or when I did “look like a Christian” it was all fake. On the last day, my mom came to pick me up and as we were driving home, we started getting into a deep conversation (as my mom and I tend to do a lot). And I told her about how I felt like I wasn’t doing any good for the kingdom or even for my own spiritual life, how I felt like I was living a lukewarm life. I told her I didn’t really feel like I was saved, here is why: any time I would listen to a sermon and the pastor would say “Is there anyone here who is not saved?” or “Do you know for sure you are going to heaven when you die?” I would feel this knot in my stomach and I had no idea if I was going to heaven or not. But I would always brush it off because ‘of course I’m a Christian’ I would think to re-assure myself.

So sitting in our drive way, I prayed with my mom and re-dedicated my life to Jesus. Over the next year He drew me closer to Him, but my salvation didn’t become real to me until a little later.

At the beginning of 2020 I went through some hard stuff that really made me question if I really loved Jesus as much as I said I did. If He took away the things I loved, was I still going to praise Him and seek Him? Or was I just gonna get mad? The first several months of 2020 were really hard for me to go through and finally I just broke down and asked the Lord “What do you want me to do? What is your will for my life?” I began to be convicted about many things in my life, the main one was not reading my bible. Why didn’t I read it? Because I thought it was boring and I couldn’t understand it. So I half-heartily asked God to give me a love for His Word and that I would want to know Him more. What I didn’t know at the time was: God answers prayers. Period. So as time went on my love for the Word grew and I was in the bible more than ever in my entire life (granted it’s only 15 years but still) My love for the Lord also grew, and I found myself saying phrases that I had heard all my life but never understood their meaning. Example: “The Word is living and powerful” or “You’ve just gotta trust the Lord” etc. I had heard those all my life and I knew they were true, they just never became real to me until then.

Then COVID hit and we are all stuck in our houses bored out of our minds (at least I was). God used that time to show me some things in His Word that I had never noticed before. Then in September I was able to go to a youth conference in GA and many things happened there that ultimately changed how I live, but the main one that stuck out to me was one time after chapel the speaker (Nate Bramsen) told the whole camp that he didn’t want anyone to say anything for 20 minutes after he was finished. He told us to go find a spot by ourselves and think and pray. He wanted us to think back in our lives and find the time that we were passionate about God, and he told us to dig it up and to ask God to stir that fire in us once again. So that weekend I prayed two main things: One, that I wouldn’t just go through the motions of being a Christian and that I would actually have passion and interest in reading the Word and really knowing the Lord more. And two, that the fire for Him would never die. That my love for Him would grow with every day and my passion would be deeper as each day passes. And you know what? He has 100% answered that prayer.

And that is how I came to know my Lord and Savior, my one true love, my passion, my purpose.