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“God’s Grace Turned My Life Around”

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

[John 3:16 NIV]

Michael writes:

I recieved Jesus in my life in 1994. At the time I was doing drugs, chasing women, drinking and all manner of evil things. I was often reminded of Jobn 3:16, but never really understood that kind of love before. “How can someone give His life for people like us?”, Was my question. I struggled for years after I recieved the Lord in my life and didn’t really understand why I was still sinning against God, after all, I thought when you get saved that all your troubles just go away! To my surprise I found that that wasn’t so. Even though I was still sinning I continued to seek God in my delima and as time went on and through prayer, studying and seeking God’s face He began to reveal Himself to me through His word. “The race is not given to the swift, nor to the strong, but to them that endure until the end.” I lost allot of friends and family during this time, partially because people would see me in the streets on drugs and then see me going to church to next day. I didn’t see anything wrong with that because I was searching, but people had their own idea. The bible told me; “What ever I do, do it whole heartedly unto God and not to men.” so I did, but my problem still didn’t go away. I continued in prayer, seeking God’s face and He told me that I needed to; “Deny myself, take up my cross and follow Him.” “What?” Was my response. What does that mean to deny yourself? I didn’t for what ever reason understand that at the time. After some years of continuing my distrutive lifestyle it finally dawned on me what it meant to deny myself. Giving up my life for Christ! Accepting His will for my life; and not my own. I had fallen so many times back into the sin that God had delivered me out of; “Like a dog returning to his vomit, or like a pig, having been washed returning to the mud” but I believed God at His word; “If we confess our sins,He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleans us from all unrighteousness.” I did this on a daily basis. I knew that God’s mercy was new everyday, but in my ignorance I continued to sin. I almost gave up and was afraid that I’d be lost forever, but then I realized that that’s what God wanted all along, for me to give up and to come to the end of myself, “Denying Myself!” It was then when I recieved deliverance from drugs, womanizing etc; And now I’m witnessing to people about Jesus and His love and longsuffering toward me and encouraging them not to give up on God, but give up on self. “Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.” God had a plan for our redemption and that plan was fullfilled through His love towards us by sacrificing His Son; Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. What greater way to express one’s love than this; “WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US!”