When a man or woman receives Jesus Christ as one's Savior from sin and the Lord of one's life, the Spirit of God enters into the person. The Holy Spirit removes the sinful heart and replaces it with a new heart—a heart that is loving, gracious, serving, humble, and obedient to God. The person's life is gradually changed from the inside out.
This "becoming a new creature in Christ" results in a person able to speak or write "This is what I once was...but here is how I am now..." Called a testimony, the personal sharing declares what God has done for a person, what changes have occurred, what the experience has taught, and what hope is in the future.
Testimonies are given to glorify God for his grace and to benefit the lives of others. May God benefit you as you read.
My story isn’t like many others’, those who didn’t always know of God’s amazing love and forgiveness. Some of my very earliest memories are of being in Sunday School and church services at a little country church. I loved hearing the wonderful accounts of Jesus walking on the water, of Zacchaeus climbing the tree to see Him as He walked by, encircled by a crowd of followers; of the feeding of over 5000 people with only a small basket of loaves and fishes; of Jesus healing people and raising people from the dead; and many, many more.
Each year way back then, our little country church would have a one-or-two-week fiery revival with a guest evangelist preaching each night about Hell being the destination of those who didn’t accept Jesus as Savior. At the end of each meeting, we would be invited to kneel at the alter and receive the Savior, assuring us of Heaven, no longer needing to fear the fires of Hell. Many times as a very young girl I answered that call and knelt at the altar, expecting that I’d then be Heaven-bound and would no longer do anything wrong. Sometimes twice in one week I’d “accept Jesus,” thinking I needed to try again because I “didn’t feel like a Christian.”
My Sunday School teachers had taught about how Jesus loves us and wants us to be good. I took that to heart and if/when I’d do something I believed Jesus didn’t want me to do, I truly believed Jesus didn’t like me anymore, and I wasn’t saved from Hell. I remember going to my mom’s bedside late at night asking her to help me be a Christian. Her response was, “You’re doing all right.” I feared I was a failure. I couldn’t grasp that salvation isn’t feeling, but believing.
Regretfully, I didn’t stay pure until marriage, and I became a statistic, pregnant as a teenager. I was married at an early age, and many years later divorced my husband, walking in further sin, and falling short of what the Lord had planned for me. For several months I shied away from church, but before very long, I just had to return. God and His church had been too much a part of my life for me to abandon. I was asked to teach a small children’s Sunday School class, and in doing so, I realized I needed again to ask forgiveness for my sins. I struggled for many years, trying so hard to believe I was forgiven, but how could God forgive me when I had willingly sinned, ripped apart my family, and hurt so many people in the process? Besides, I still didn’t “feel like a Christian.”
Over many struggling, fearful years, thanks be to God, through listening to others’ testimonies and teachings, and reading my Bible, I finally realized that no matter how far I’d strayed, by my willingness to return to accept His gift of salvation, He had forgiven my many sins, and He continues to forgive! The truth is, He longs to forgive! He wants to set everyone free from all sin. God LOVES us! His promise in the Bible in I John 1:9 is true, that, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I don’t have to be good enough, nor “feel like a Christian.” In fact, I CANNOT be good enough to earn the love of Jesus and His acceptance. According to His mercy, He saves us. We must simply believe! Jesus is the only way to God and to eternity in Heaven, and He offers the same to everyone.
Now I read His Word with confidence in my relationship with my God, and I seek to please Him. I know that when He looks at me, He sees the righteousness of His own Son, and I belong to Him. The Bible tells us in Acts 16:31 to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
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