From Religion to Relationship

As someone born into a family of devoted Christians, I always grew up hearing and talking about God. My parents would take me to church every Sunday, I got involved in different ministries at church even at a young age, and I memorized scripture upon scripture day after day, week after week.

Despite all this, I knew of God but hadn’t personally experienced Him yet. I could give you a theologically sound answer using scripture but I couldn’t personally describe to you the beauty of His presence. Because I lacked a personal connection with Him, I also took sin very lightly and I lived in a way that was very immoral and self-serving, all the while, going to church every Sunday and memorizing scripture. I knew I wanted to experience God because I had seen His goodness in my life and I had seen the change he had brought in others but I didn’t love Him or fear Him enough to walk away from my sin.

The Turning Point: Freedom Hour

All this continued until I experienced God for the first time at a church retreat that I went to the summer before high school. The second night of the retreat started with a powerful time of worship and I already felt convicted then the pastor came up and preached and it felt as though he was speaking directly to me.

I decided then that I couldn’t be complacent any longer and decided to surrender myself completely. Right after the sermon we went into a time called freedom hour, which was a worship set at the end of the night that was very spontaneous and that was the first time I felt God’s presence so heavily and I knew that nothing else would ever satisfy me except for this.

Learning to Run Towards the Father

I went back home from the retreat and I was seeking out Jesus and spending time with Him but for some reason I kept falling for temptation and I felt so guilty that I didn’t even want to come to Jesus; I was so ashamed. Not long after a pastor reminded me that it is better to run back to the open arms of the Father in the midst of temptation than to run away in shame.

Encouraged by this I began to dive deeper into His word and spend more time with Him in prayer and for the first time, I wasn’t simply doing these things because I had to but because I wanted to. As I spent time with Him, God taught me things and revealed new things to me from His word that I had never noticed before. I learned that the best way to fight temptation is:

• Not by standing still and trying to use my own willpower
• But rather by running away from it
• And, more importantly, running towards the loving hands of the Father who will strengthen us and not turn us away.

A Community of Grace

It would be dishonest of me to discount the many vessels that God used to pour into me. I am thankful for:

• Carolinas Christian Assembly: Which has been such a tremendous blessing in my life — through our pastors and youth leaders who have poured into us, opened up opportunities for us to serve, and continually covered us in prayer.
• The prayers of my parents: Whose faith and intercession have played a huge role in shaping my walk with God.

This is just a condensed portion of one part of my manifold testimony, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll conclude with this: just the fact that I could write pages upon pages more about my personal testimony is a testament to the goodness of God, and I pray that I never take that for granted.