I faced the very thing I had dreaded my whole career and was compelled to pray a very specific prayer....
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 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....
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....
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....
My life as you can imagine was completely destroyed. I knew I had only one hope to survive, God. I cried day and night....
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 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....
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....
We serve a God who desires the full attention of our soul, heart, and mind. Our souls long for the presence and refuge of our Creator. God has given us ways to experience His nearness through prayer and fasting....
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Our life-giving shelter is not outside of God. We will never find refuge and protection in this world, our idols, or ourselves that indeed cause us to offer holy praises in celebration. We are meant to dwell within the fortress of God, and there we will find all that we need....
Keep Reading I felt so empty and alone. No matter how many people I had around me nothing could fill the growing darkness inside me. ...
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Believers and unbelievers alike need to hear and see that our God not only provides good things, but He is goodness itself....
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Although not all our hopes will be fulfilled as we believe they should, we can still choose an attitude of joy. ...
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