A New Hope in Life - D'onte' Ballard

I reached my breaking point when I took a step back and looked at my life. I saw deceit, hate, and all I had lost. Hopeless, alone, no purpose ...
Keep ReadingMy pride made me believe I had all the answers, but there was always a suffocating emptiness inside me....
I recognized that God's call on my life was the same as the women who invested in me many years ago. I want to be intentional about listening and sharing and allow women to see and know who they are in Christ. It is humbling to think that God can use even me to proclaim His name and encourage others in their walk....
It was when I moved to the United States that I got to know the true gospel of Jesus Christ, something very different from what I knew in the Catholic religion who taught me to worship images of God, a crucified Christ, and the Virgin Mary. ...
Before I gave my life over to the Lord, I was living very much in the world. I felt alone and unworthy. I had lustful thoughts, engaged in new age activities such as crystals and sage, and was going out on the weekends abusing substances. I knew it was wrong, but I still did it. I was trying to fill the void with all of these things, but after I would still feel the same or even more empty....
After the campaign, I moved home to Oklahoma, bringing a pregnant girlfriend, a fragile faith, and an expectation of judgment for both. I didn’t know what the future would hold for me, and I was scared. ...
I've always grown up in church and considered myself a Chrsitian. However, I only went through the motions. I would go to church once a week, never pray, and not read my Bible. I had no relationship with God and the only things I knew about Him were things others told me, not my personal relationship with the Lord......
I reached my breaking point when I took a step back and looked at my life. I saw deceit, hate, and all I had lost. Hopeless, alone, no purpose ...
I did my best to hide my struggles and put on a fake picture of myself, but deep down, I was miserable and couldn’t escape....
A broken, repentant sinner, saved only by the amazing grace of my perfect Father, who will never leave me or forsake me....
In my loneliest season and the darkest year for our family I finally came to the end of myself and turned to God’s Word for help...
March 28, 2001, my world was rocked when I was involved in a terrible car accident. I broke my neck in three places and had to wear a halo for two months. I was 20 years old. Oh, how I wish I could tell you that was my moment of awakening, but it was not. ...
The story of how God called me into a relationship with Him is a miraculous story. As you read this, you may think it’s not miraculous, but any life transformed by God is a miracle....
We heard the gospel clearly preached and the Lord used that to draw me to Himself. I recognized that I was a sinner and that only Jesus could take away my sin. ...
I felt so empty and alone. No matter how many people I had around me nothing could fill the growing darkness inside me. ...
Before I knew the truth, I lived in the world. I valued my flesh, my possessions, my life more than I valued the one who created me. I believed that the more I achieved, the more I possessed, the longer I served the military the more I could prove I was a good person....
Emily faced the very thing she had dreaded her whole career and was compelled to pray a very specific prayer....
Because of Christ’s love, grace, and forgiveness, I am free from the darkness of perfection and shame....
I found hope and security in the money I was making, my career, friendships, parties, and materialism, a marathon with no finish line...
It took five years, a lot of heartache, getting married, having a baby, and more struggles to realize I did not have control of this life ...
I made superficial changes, I looked like a Christian on the outside. But I hadn’t changed on the inside....
I was raised in a faith where the works and requirements of perfection were so great that I felt I never could measure up....
My life as you can imagine was completely destroyed. I knew I had only one hope to survive, God. I cried day and night....
Being in God’s presence, I have felt absolute peace of mind and heart for the first time in my life....
Three years ago, my life broke into pieces. I was striving for status in my church, I lost my job, my life was falling apart right in front of me....
I was a “good husband” and a “good father.” Why couldn’t that be enough?...I would ask myself, “What is it that GOD wants from me?”...
One weekend, at the age of 30, I experienced a life-changing string of events. A good friend of mine, shot me while I was asleep. ...
I have been saved from battles of pornography, a “foul” mouth, and drunkenness. I used these “vices” to cover up my own self-esteem issues....
I wrestled with God. I knew I had said the prayer, but I also knew my motives weren’t right. I was so heavily burdened by it....
I grew up in Seoul and the religion of my family was Buddhism. We went to a Christian church for years but later stopped considering Christ....
I grew up and the church was losing relevance. I used to pray a little but I walked away, I didn't think I was enough to please God....
Looking back on it, I know God had His hand on me. I grew up in a messy home and in a dysfunctional family....
I had never seen anything like that: he gave, showed me around, without asking me for a dime, that rarely happens where I come from....
I reached my breaking point when I took a step back and looked at my life. I saw deceit, hate, and all I had lost. Hopeless, alone, no purpose ...
Keep ReadingI did my best to hide my struggles and put on a fake picture of myself, but deep down, I was miserable and couldn’t escape....
Keep ReadingA broken, repentant sinner, saved only by the amazing grace of my perfect Father, who will never leave me or forsake me....
Keep Reading