Testimonies

This is my testimony. I used to be nervous about telling others, because mine is not a riveting story or an amazing transformation. Now I realize that God can use my walk with him to hopefully encourage others and inspire others to tell their story. I pray that my story brings God the honor and glory that He rightly deserves.

I have lived a very blessed life without many needs or wants unfulfilled. Loving family. Successful in school. A good job. Healthy. One of my earliest memories was asking Jesus to come into my life. I crawled under my blanket (a Barbie blanket my mom made me), and prayed a very simple prayer. Something along the lines of “Jesus, I love you. I surrender my life to you.” The next day at school, my teacher was teaching us about heaven. I was very excited to tell her that I would be going there someday. A very innocent child like faith. I grew up in a Christian home. I attended Awanas, Sunday school, Wednesday night youth group, and church almost every week. We prayed before dinner as a family. I personally had a faith and relationship with God from a very young age. I am thankful for the family and church I grew up with, because they helped build the faith I have today. I chose to be baptized on Easter of my sophomore year of high school. I was baptized as a baby, but I wanted to make the choice myself. Getting re-baptized was a self-righteous act. I had watched a friend, who had not been in the Church as long as I had been, get baptized, and I wanted what she had. Looking back, I still did not understand exactly how to have a deep relationship with God. I needed to grow deeper in my faith past the outward faith that I was known for.

Because I had grown up in the church and been so active, I had a small part of me that was self-righteous. I read the Bible often and when I got to college, I joined a Christian organization and continued going to church on Sundays. At college, my faith transformed from my family religion to a deeper understanding and a budding relationship. I had a yearning for the Word. At Bible study, I knew a lot about the Bible stories and started to lead the studies. I found that I was good at leading others in studying the Word, and some of the other girls looked up to me for my knowledge and faith. Although many people could not see it, my pride and self-righteousness continued to grow.

I am a Christian, I have believed in Christ my entire life, but I have not always lived for Him. My actions spoke faith, but my heart had many flaws that I did not see. I believed in salvation, but did not realize how much saving I needed. I could see how “bad” others were, and felt proud of how “good” I was. I have been prideful of my knowledge and success. I focused so much effort on my outward appearance of Christianity, that I volunteered at every opportunity, I made it clear of my faith, I avoided everything I deemed “bad” or “unchristian,” and I judged those who lived in a “worldly way” or different than myself. I missed a big point: my personal relationship with Christ. I never had a huge emotional turning point in my life. Rather, God has used small ways to show me how I am a wretched sinner, and that my deeds are not how I am saved. He has worked through others to show me His love and the righteousness breeding inside me. He has also utilized others hardships to test my faith and bring me closer to Him. He has brought people into my life that showed me a different perspective, and He has taken others out of my life to show me His goodness and power.

I hope that my testimony can encourage you to write out and take a hard look at your own testimony, and if you don’t have one, then I’d like to encourage you to reach out to the Christians in your life and hear theirs!