As a young child, at only six or seven years old, I accepted Christ as my King and my Savior. I understood only a small amount really – eternity being a difficult concept for an adult let a small child. But I understood enough. I continued to grow and learn with the instruction of my mother and our church family. As I grew I participated in GA’s and Disciplehip Training and Bible Drills. I learned the doctrine and theology of what it meant to be a Christian and how God wanted me to live. As young children are inclined to do, I accepted it wholeheartedly and agreeably.
In my adolescence I began to examine things more closely. For the first time I consciously, purposely made Him Lord of all my life. My spiritual life took off and I wanted to know more. I wanted to learn. Ahh, but then I became a teenager. And making God Lord over EVERYTHING suddenly became difficult. I struggled. I made mistakes. I started over. Finally I felt like I had mastered making God ruler over those things. And then I discovered that that was only the beginning. I came to understand that God is always asking us to improve ourselves and strive to be like Him.
Really, my growth and development since then has been a lot like “second verse same as the first” only each time on a higher and higher level. We are never DONE learning and growing. There is always SOMETHING we can refine. We will ALWAYS struggle with sin.
Occasionally I have in the past lamented that I don’t have one of those “WAM-POW!” testimonies where God really got in my face and brought me to Him. I have realized… God gets in my face and draws me to Him all the time. Every time I think I can do things on my own and that I have everything within myself to do what needs to be done, He reminds me that I need Him. I NEED Him. For others, their story involves a major turn around at some pivotal point in their life. For me, my story is that God has always been there for me.
He has never abandoned me.
- I felt him as a small child leading me into His presence.
- I saw him as an adolescent revealing His nature and wisdom to me.
- I heard him as a young woman, heading into marriage and quickly into parenthood – calling me back into fellowship with other believers after I had so easily slipped away in a new place and a new city.
- I watched as He protected us through multiple layoffs and provided a way out for us.
- I’ve observed Him through rough patches in our marriage, holding us together like glue when all else threatened to fall apart.
- I’ve felt His comforting embrace through difficult struggles and trials that I had not anticpated ever having to endure.
- I have seen Him provide again and again through “famine” and lean times.
- I have been blessed by His love, through others filled with His love, so many times I have lost count. Countless needs met and filled at just the perfect time.
- I have seen the wonder of His creation, three times through the births of our own healthy children.
- I have felt the joy of a daughter becoming my sister in Christ, a son becoming my brother.
- I have worshipped and fellowshipped with God through thick and thin. Through good times and bad. Through joy and sorrow, comfort and pain, feast and famine. And God has ALWAYS been there for me. My rock. My solid ground. My foundation.
My testimony is this: God has always been there for me, with me, he has never forsaken me. He is my I AM.
Image credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/cZVthlrnlnQ
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