What was life like before you met Jesus?
I grew up in a Christian household and always felt like I knew God. I accepted Christ into my heart when I was 5 years old, and I really felt close to God throughout my childhood. When I entered my teenage years, doubt and mistrust took hold of my heart and I put my relationship with Christ on the back burner. During this time and into my college years, I started living for myself, following along with what the world told me life should look like, and this only created problems for me. After going down the wrong path, I thought God didn't love me anymore.
How did you meet Jesus?
When I was going through a really tough time, I came across my old Bible that I hadn't opened in years. I started reading it and became overcome with the realization that God still loved me and hadn't given up on me, even through my lowest points. I realized that I needed to turn from the way I had been living and turn to God. He created me and loved me so much that he sent Jesus to die for my sins so that I could have a relationship with him, and nothing could ever separate me from his love. Ephesians 2:1-5 "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit of who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved."
After being saved by Jesus, what is your life like now?
Since I have been saved by Jesus I have been set free from the desire to follow the ways of the world. He has given me a new heart and a new purpose. I only want to live for him and glorify him in all that I do. I am so thankful that he forgave me and set me free so I can have eternal life with him. 1 Peter 1:3 says “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”