Testimony

I grew up in a Catholic home and went to a mass every week, until high school at least. I didn’t care about God back then. I never read the Bible, or anything, because it didn’t interest me; and praying outside of Church was ‘not my thing.’ I’ve said this before but God was kinda the spare car tire in the trunk. When I was stuck and stranded I used him. The whole relationship thing, I didn’t know much about that. Or cared about it. As high school came so did the pressures to fit it, and to fall into sin. In grade 10, I began going to parties and getting into drugs and blending in with the wrong crowds, but that didn’t bother me. I believed that these were my real friends and that you know, they really understood me. And I would keep falling into sin and disconnecting from those that really mattered to me but, I guess I just didn’t care. I began to change my friends to those who were very much addicted to drugs and had really sleazy lifestyles. I loved getting high, because when I was high, I had no depression. The only problem was, when I would come back down, I was much more depressed than before.  

A year later I was still in the same situation. There was a new youth program going on at my church called Lifeteen but that was the last thing I cared about. My brother soon became totally immersed in the program and he really began repairing his broken relationship with God. Over the months he began being more and more involved and soon was asked to be a Leader. He knew that I wasn’t happy where I was at and he saw the depression in my eyes and he never gave up. I began coming to church when he joined the mass band but still it meant nothing to me. I just sat there going thru the motions, but still didn’t really care. After running our of excuses for not coming out the the youth program I started to come out. After a few weeks they had this one really deep night about prayer. Once again I wasn’t there by will so I didn’t really care what they had to say. But, at the end of the evening we had something called Adoration. I didn’t know what it was or what to expect. We were all spread out in the church far from one another and one of the leaders from NET began to lead reflection to guide us thru. She was talking about healing. And how Jesus doesn’t care where you are at, He knows whats in your heart and He is there to heal all the sin you’ve caused. Let go and Let God. During that Adoration was the first time I ever felt God within me. I had shivers going thru my body as they began playing worship music.

I closed my eyes and said a prayer of inviting Him into my life and into my heart. I asked Him to forgive me of my sin, and to make Him a greater part of my. And right after I said Amen, there was just this presence there, I could feel Him ever so STRONG . And right then and there I knew He heard me and He healed me. Because there was such peace. I felt free. There was no fear, no hopelessness. I can go on forever from that day till today but I’ve just grown so much as a person and have truly started to discover myself thru God. He has changed my life, brought me closer to friends I would have never met and more importantly He gave me the gift of Faith. And now I’ve learned to not get frustrated and bothered when things don’t go my way, because God has a plan for me.
Amen.