Growing My Faith in the Lord–Goh Ern Xin Gideon

I am really glad that I was born in a Christian family. Since young, I have relatives who fear the Lord and have influenced my life to walk with God wholeheartedly as a young Christian. Hence, I would like to thank God for giving me family members who helped me in my spiritual walk with God.

In kindergarten teachers taught us the amazing things Jesus did. The teachers wanted us to realise that we were sinners and we should repent wholeheartedly. I still, however, did not understand what the teachers were talking about and I did not take it seriously when I was young. My mother used to take my siblings and me to a church, Pasir Panjang Christ Church. At that time, I did not like going to church because I did not know anyone there. I used to find going to church pointless. This was all because of a lack of faith in God.

When I was in Primary 2, I started to know a little more about God. Yet I still did not have the faith to believe that God exists. Two years later, my father did the Kid’s Bible Study with my younger brother and me. After a while, I slowly grew in faith in the Lord. At that time, however, I still did not know about what a Quiet Time was. I was trying hard to have strong faith in God. In 2012, I went to TOLCC because my cousins were all there. Finally, I really liked going to Church because they were there.

In 2014, I started serving the Lord by in ushering. Eventually, going to church became a habit for me. After going to Tree of Life Christian Church for several years, I did not have any more complaints because this was where I really started growing a lot as a young Christian. I also attended all the Sunday school classes, listened to sermons during worship service and the Young People Fellowship. From there I learnt a lot about God and Jesus, and I started to acknowledge that I was a sinner and Jesus was the Saviour who could save us from going to hell. Doing Quiet Time and praying to God were not things that I felt as being forced to do. Rather, I did them because I wanted to spend some time communicating with God by reading the Bible and praying to Him. Soon, I had the interest of going to church because the sermons that were preached were really interesting.

The faith I had in God grew because God did not give up on me. He repeatedly tried to change my heart to turn me away from my sinful nature and to follow him by His grace. Therefore, I am really grateful to God for strengthening my faith in Him and for giving me greater faith in Bible promises that He will guide me all the way throughout my life. I also want to thank God that He gave me the opportunity to serve Him in this church. This shaped my Christian life for the better.

Jesus Changed My Life–Tan Yan Yi

I remember clearly how terrified I was when my father described hell to me when I was five years old. I realised that I was a sinner and immediately decided to accept Christ as my Saviour out of fear. I had always regarded God as a fearfully perfect and strict God when I was young. After a little while, however, I realised that God was a loving God whose love is deeper than the ocean (Psalm 30 5-11: “For his anger lasts only a moment, but His favour lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning”).

I soon grew out of that fear after I realised how much God loved me. It was not, however, exactly a good thing because I no longer feared His laws as much. I began to revert to my sinful self in satisfying my human wants. These included protecting my pride, having a tongue that was unbecoming of a godly person, et cetera. Consequently, my appetite for God worsened. Nothing I read in my Quiet Time made an impact on me (Ephesians 4:18: “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”). Day after day I became more and more insensitive to sin (James 1:24: “and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”).

Thankfully, God is faithful even if we were not (Romans 3:3-4: “What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: ‘So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.’”). He will bring us back to him. Like any other father, God disciplined me by taking away things to which I had worldly attachment. Of course, it was an unpleasant period. Hebrews 12:11, however, says that all occasions of being disciplined would not seem pleasant at first. Every day when I sinned against God by repeating the same old sinful habits, I would always fear that God would one day refuse to forgive me. Then, “hell” would break loose again.

But I thank God that 1 John 1:9 says that God is faithful and will always forgive us our sins. In fact, those times of discipline changed me. Then, characteristics which were becoming of a Christian surfaced. Everything in the Bible I once thought was unimportant and useless began to impress upon me (for instance, Luke 6:46: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”). God’s Word began to penetrate my heart like no other words ever since my sinful nature that blinded me was taken away. I started to devote myself to God in my speech and action (there is still much work to be done). Through the Bible, I threw away my pride because God also descended to earth. Through the Bible (the Book of Ecclesiastes), I also began to find everything which I did on earth meaningless because everything will one day crumble. This was also the time that I understood what the Bible meant when it instructed me to devote myself to do God’s will because my work for God will never perish. Since then, the many objectives I set now take on greater meaning. I found it easier to attain them because God is there for me.

Joy and Struggles of a Christian – Teo Yue Yi Jonathan

Being born into a Christian family meant that I was exposed to habits, characteristics, and actions of a Christian. My role models were my father and mother. Although I might not remember much about my early life as a Christian, I do remember saying the sinner’s prayer when I was seven years old at the place of one of my father’s friend. My early years as a Christian did not really mean much to me. There were certain behaviours (through regular exposure over the years to my siblings and parents) which I thought everyone should possess. It was not until when I was in secondary school and junior college that I realised that these behaviours I thought were normal were something most people did not possess. These included a peace of mind in times of trouble, being polite to and loving other people despite that they are different from me.

That said, however, I was not a perfect Christian. There were many areas in my life that were lacking and needed improvement. It was only through attending church that I managed to correct some of my behaviours and actions that did not represent a Christian well. Through many classes, sermons and testimonies, I picked up valuable life lessons from the many seniors before me. Each one of them impacted my life in different but meaningful ways. A glaring bad trait I had was bad temper. At one point in time it got so bad that I would throw tantrums even when I was slightly agitated. Because of this, my friends started telling me that I really did not behave like a Christian. Through constant teachings from the church and, of course, my parents’ upbringing, I could change my ways. I began to have more peace in my heart and not get easily agitated over the smallest of things. The change in my life then was observed by others. My behaviour has changed without me realising it. People around me began to tell me how much better my behaviour had been, and that I now reflected in a greater measure the conduct of Christian.

While behavioural changes were most noticeable, I personally felt that, first, my heart had to be in the right place before any major changes in me could be possible. Having your heart set right on God, acknowledging that He is in full control of your life, and knowing that He could grant us peace in troubled times is the first step in turning your life around. Just focusing on behavioural changes will not develop us much as Christians. Rather, setting your heart right and entrusting your life to God would help us lead the Christian life in a better, although not perfect, way. It might be scary at first to entrust your entire life to a Being whom you have never seen. Yet, exercising faith to believe that God is in control and placing your faith in the Christian community will surely set you on the right path to be a good Christian.