Jenny
I became a Christian in 2016, something I never thought would happen to me because I was so adamant in my old beliefs that there was
no God – but God chose to call me to faith and I want to tell you a bit about how He saved me.
I had always strived for something, it didn’t matter what it was, I just needed a direction in life, and I still have a direction now – it’s just
changed. I had reached every goal in life that I had set for myself; I was in my second year of medicine at University, studying for a career I had
worked so hard for, I had an amazing and loving family that had supported me unwaveringly throughout my life, and I was in a relationship that
everyone expected to last a lifetime. I had everything I thought I could ever want, and I remember once answering the question of what I would
wish for, with nothing. I didn’t want anything more for myself, but God did.
Things started to change whilst I was in my second year of University. I moved into a house with two non-Christian friends and what was then a stranger, Katie, who is a Christian. It was a shock to see how differently she lived – I had never seen such faith in someone’s life before. Her life isn’t centred around herself, as mine was, but her life is centred around Jesus Christ - it’s who she lives for. She not only went to church and attended bible studies every week, something that was alien to me, but she did this with a joy I couldn’t relate to. Christ is the light in her life and this is so clearly seen. Questions slowly started to creep up on me, it wasn’t that one day I suddenly started to question my life but that slowly, each day my life felt more and more empty. I was struggling to find a meaning in everything. I had everything that I wanted but it still didn’t fulfil a deep need, and I couldn’t explain that away. It wasn’t that my mood was low, but that I began to realise that the answer science had always provided me with, just wasn’t true. The world is so spectacular, and life is so intricate and precious that it couldn’t have occurred by accident. There had to be a meaning behind life.
Looking back, God gave me so many opportunities to turn to Him throughout my life, especially whilst all this was going on. But each time I seemed to get a bit closer, then run far away again. But then I watched a programme portraying the stories of the Bible. At first, I was unaffected - until the part leading up to Christ’s crucifixion. I grew up in a non-Christian family, but my parents had taught me the story of Jesus Christ. I could feel myself getting emotional at what I knew was going to happen. In my heart I wanted the story to end differently, I could feel myself pleading for Him not to die. My problem was that I didn’t understand why He had to die. A couple of weeks later I bought a Bible; I needed to find out why. I kept reading different parts of the Bible but within me was the nagging feeling that God was trying to bring me to faith, and this might be the last chance He would give me.
I had always thought of myself as a good person, and this didn’t change immediately, however God slowly taught me to begin to see the sin in my life. I can remember the first time I realised that I had sinned, it was a few days after I’d read the 10 commandments, and I had worked on the Sunday. It was then that I realised I was sinful and felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. That evening I prayed to ask God to forgive me and help me; I didn’t yet know how or why He could forgive me, but I knew that I need Him to because I could not ‘make-up’ for my sin by myself. I started going to church with my housemate Katie, and I don’t know exactly when, but I began to realise that God could forgive me because the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, died on the cross. It was my sin that put Him there, and by dying for me, He removed my burden and the punishment that my sins deserved. Without this, I would be facing suffering in Hell, however, because of my faith that Jesus Christ has already paid the price for me, I know that I will one day be with Him in Heaven.
Since becoming a Christian, my life has changed completely. I have gone from being a person who cares mainly about their own wants to someone who is focused on the Lord. He brings a joy that I can’t begin to describe to you. My life hasn’t been without difficulties in the time since, I have been through trials, but God has been with me every step of the way. He has lifted me through things I have always dreaded happening and with each trial He is teaching me to trust Him more and more. I know that my life isn’t perfect, I still sin, but I am not saved by anything that I try and strive for; I am saved by faith in Christ. I will be in heaven and that brings with it a peace that will never leave me. Before I was a Christian, I thought my life was perfect, but now I can see how empty it really was. I no longer have that sense of missing something - Christ is more than enough.
