Before Jesus Changed My Life

Before Christ, I would search for anything besides God to satisfy me. I was really just chasing the world and doing the things that the world told me would make me happy and give my life meaning, ungodly dating, substances, idolizing relationships and status, being disruptive to chase validation, but all this left me empty, alone, and scared.

How Jesus Changed My Life

Throughout my life, God has always remained faithful and patient. At a young age, when my pastor asked us to pray for the Spirit is when God first made his Spirit known to me. I was young, and soon after that service, my family got busy with travel sports, and we fell out of the habit of attending church. My teenage years would turn rough as I feel into the cycle of chasing the world and only calling on God when it was convenient to me, but once I got to College something changed. I had woken up to just how empty I was, how directionless I was, and how far away I had walked from God. I started to read my Bible, but I didn’t know where to go from there. I didn’t have anyone to talk to but God. I struggled by myself, but then at the start of my sophomore year, a very kind man by the name of Xander Cloudy invited me to attend a C Group. However right around this time, I entered a relationship that would quickly turn into a competing idol in the place of God. As time went on, I would learn more about God and fall deeper into this relationship with both God and her. I felt as I pursued God, I would fall away from her, and as I pursued her, I would fall away from God. These two relationships were mutually exclusive and grew as such. Ultimately, I failed to lead a relationship as a relationship is meant to be led, but God is redemptive. He is patient, he is supreme, and my sin is no match for his power. This tear in my heart was becoming hard to deal with, and at its peak, my dating relationship ended. Through this, God had paved a new path for me to walk, but this path has no room for the luggage I had accumulated throughout my life. These past months have been very difficult, I will admit. I’ve suffered through the withdrawal of the things I’ve relied so heavily on, but through my sufferings I have been able to rejoice as this change God has led me to brings him glory. It is not me who has changed, but God who has changed me. Romans 12:2 and Luke 15:11-32 are some key verses that I have kept close to my heart while coming to Christ.  I have come to embrace what Paul writes about in Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” We have all sinned and deserve death. God, who is loving and a keeper of his promises, sent his only Son to live a perfect life and fulfill the prophecies that man may be saved through a savior. Jesus lived a sinless life and was killed for our transgressions, he was raised on the third day so that those who declare his name and believe in him may also be raised up and God may be glorified.

My Life After Jesus Saved Me

Man, my life now that I know Jesus is so much different. There’s a night-and-day difference in how I used to live my life and how I live now. I wake up in the morning, and the first thing on my mind is God. I thank Him and ask that I would glorify Him throughout my day and that whatever I do, it would be for his glory and not my own. I may fall short, but God always helps me back up on my feet and helps me run back after him. The anxiety I used to face of my future and the unknowns of life have been replaced by patience, and of faithfulness that the lords plans are better than mine, I now look to the Lord’s provision rather than the uncertainty that I’m faced with, and yes it’s not always sunshine and rainbows, but the old me was too caught up in myself too see the glory that stood over me. Now when I doubt the lord could do something in my life, or when I’m confused, or when I fall, I have my brothers in Christ who will always have my back and point me towards God, I have the Salt staff to teach me, I have Veritas and the church body to be there like a family, I have my parents who have always been there for me and are always willing to listen to the newest things God has done in my life. I have the Word to guide me, and above all else I have God who leads me and will pull me back up if I stumble, I have God who has provided eternal life through a sacrifice that cost him his life, but through his undeserving death he was resurrected, and if we are born again through his spirit, and our flesh dies with his, we may be raised with him, and all the glory will go to him. I know I have eternal Life through Jesus because this life no longer belongs to me. I’ll still fall but I’m encouraged to stand strong in my faith and endure, for my mind is renewed by Christ and His will becomes evident in and around my life. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”.(Roman’s 12:2)