GOD RESCUED ME

Growing up in a Christian home, I was familiar with the faith. I had many encounters with the Lord as I earnestly desired to be close to Him, but something changed soon after.

As I stepped into my teenage years, I became more accustomed to sinning without feeling bad about it, and steadily started to desire everything the world had to offer. There were several moments when I realized that God was still keeping me close, protecting me from going deeper into sin, regardless of where I was.

When I turned 18, I had a sobering wake-up call as I ended up in jail, facing a 5-year prison sentence. I immediately decided to stop the sinful things I was doing and start improving myself. I put a lot of effort into changing, but I kept failing.

As time went on, I desired to get closer to God, but my own efforts only took me so far. It was a journey of ups and downs for a long and difficult time. At one point, when I felt like I was in the darkest place I’d been in for a long time, God rescued me.

I was dealing with anxiety, depression, and sins that caused self-hate. I had started going to a small youth fellowship, but it was difficult for me to be there consistently.

One day as I was driving by myself, I cried out to God, “I don’t want anything, I just want to feel your love again.” I know the Lord heard that prayer because when I went to fellowship that week with a thirsty heart, I stood during prayer on the side.

As I was praying, a young man came to me and started speaking what he felt the Holy Spirit was saying about me. His exact words from the Lord were, “I know exactly why you’re here; you just want to feel My love again. I have never denied you before, and I’m not going to deny you, so accept my love.”

As I heard these words and realized that my exact prayer was being answered in a miraculous way, I started breaking down in tears.

In that moment, I experienced an encounter with God’s love that forever changed me. Instantly, my desire for anything in this world was gone. The only thing I wanted was to be with Jesus.

As a result, my character started changing over time, and certain attributes that identified me in the past began to fall away, revealing a closer image of Jesus than I’d ever seen in myself before.

I started seeing the fruit of the Spirit developing within me, becoming more loving toward the people around me. However, not everything was as easy as it seemed on the outside.

In these beginning stages of my transformation, I experienced a lot of criticism and even ostracism from my old community for being involved with the new fellowship I was attending. This all stemmed from having different perspectives on certain subsidiary topics in the Christian faith between these fellowships, but I stood firmly on my newfound values, believing this is what God was calling me to do.

Throughout this whole process, I’ve learned many lessons that are leading me to love people no matter what they think of me.

To sum it up, I’ve learned to truly deny myself and pick up my cross to follow Jesus. Since Jesus changed me forever and filled me with His love, my natural response is to share it with other people and tell them about Him.

I try to encourage people in my everyday life and share the Gospel with people in my local community. I also enjoy serving my church family and bonding with my brothers and sisters in fellowship in Christ.

Besides this, I have been hearing God’s call on my life to serve in the nations. I stepped into full-time missions work, recently returning from a two-month trip to Africa.

My local community needs the love of Jesus in the same way people who have never heard of Jesus need His love, so I pray, “Let my life be in Your hands, dear Father.”