...I gave my life to the Lord at church yesterday :D Are you shocked? Well here's my story:
When I was eight years old on May 2, 2002, I "accepted" the Lord into my heart the same night as my dad. Well I did it to make "mommy" and "daddy" happy. Two months later I was baptized...for the wrong reason too. At nine I gave my heart to the Lord, telling Him to hold it in His mighty hands. To give it to the young man He wants for me at the right time! But my struggles didn't start until I was about thirteen. At thirteen my mom and dad told me that I wasn't allowed to go to the youth group at the church we were going to at that time. Well as you may have guessed I was quite mad, and blamed everyone for it...even the Lord (very mature huh?). Months passed (I had repented already) and my parents told me that they didn't think it was a good idea that I was hanging around the friends I was associating with at our church. OK pause for a moment. The "friends" I had at the time weren't "bad" so to speak, they just weren't the kind my parents didn't want me to have. OK back to the story...well at this time I was secretly dealing with pride and rebellion. So I became extremely angry (inwardly) at my parents, my peers, our pastor (not sure why) and the Lord (this time I didn't repent). Again months passed, I turned fourteen, and was struggling. I had no idea why! We had started going to a new church, and there I met my three wonderful friends. As time went by and I started going to the high school AWANA group, I found my-self struggling a whole lot. I had stopped getting into the word. I was memorizing the verses I needed to know in order to pass the lessons on Wednesday nights, but I wasn't reading the Bible passages to go along with the lesson. I was secretly saying God's name in vain when I hurt my-self. When I turned fifteen things got even worse! I denounced God, telling Him that I didn't need Him, I could make it on my own! I was secretly saying words that I wasn't allowed to say out loud. I had invited a young boy to the high school AWANA group for the wrong reason. Which led me to wanting to give up my goal of purity. I was secretly listening to secular music. And a whole lot of other things! So when I turned sixteen, I started thinking really hard on why I was struggling. I couldn't understand it, when I had denounced Him a year ago my struggles weren't that bad (yeah right!). So yesterday our pastor asked "if you are 100% sure you were going to Heaven raise your hand". I didn't...but I did when he asked "if you aren't sure if your saved, but would like to be, then raise your hand". I did, and a sweet young lady took me to a room, showed me some verses that told me I was not saved, and explained everything to me. Then she asked me if I would like to be saved...and I said yes! It wasn't until yesterday that I realized that I cannot without Him. I needed Him badly! I'm so happy that I don't have to struggle anymore!
And since yesterday, there is a verse I absolutely love, and it is:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new!
II Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
*I pray that you all have a marvelous Monday night!*
