Several years ago, my friend brought me to church after A levels. Honestly, I was very attracted to Christianity which describes God as being perfect. I simply loved God’s compassionate, kind and loving world. I believed that people should strive to imitate God’s loving character. What made me accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour was how I finally felt that I could live in God’s world and presence that is so righteous and perfect. I wanted to invite Christ into my life because I recognise Him as my one and only Saviour who created and love me for who I am. Most importantly, God has taught me to love people, especially my family members and strive to build a close relationship with them.
After believing in Jesus for some years, trials and doubts came. The past two years had been extremely difficult for me due to various stresses, especially, insomnia. I often struggled with believing that God truly loved me. My job worsened it. I felt that I was prioritising work over God. I felt guilty, and I became very tired and afraid of going to church. Serving God eventually became an added burden on top of the things I was going through. These stresses took a toll on my health physically, mentally and spiritually, and I often broke down from anxiety. They tested my faith and I often faltered. There were several trials that I felt that I had to overcome alone. I am referring to my grandparents for whom I pray will believe in Jesus so that they can go to heaven after they leave this world. No one could help me in this as I was the only Christian in my family. Every night I prayed that God would give me His daily bread and strength, show me that He is with me and help me grow in my relationship with Him. I am very thankful for a few friends who encouraged me using God’s Word. My family also encouraged me by understanding that things have not been the easier for me. Most importantly, I am grateful to God who helped me through each and every single day despite the exhaustion. For example, there were many times that I felt I could not pull through the whole day of work due to an accumulated lack of sleep. Somehow, however, I always managed to survive the day with God’s strength. I am also very grateful that God in answer to prayers enabled my grandfather who is 94 years old to recover and be discharged from the hospital after a frightening and difficult journey for my grandfather and my family.
These trials were unpleasant and appeared at first even meaningless. But it was through these trials that God taught me perseverance and to trust that these trials would make me a stronger person and Christian. His faithfulness encouraged me to put Him as my priority once again. God also gave me the necessary wisdom to makes changes to my job that would ease my stress. Above all, God amazingly arranged circumstances and coincidences to make these changes possible. Praise the Lord. I pray that the changes I would be making to my full-time job would give me more capacity to serve Him with a willing heart and to spend more time with my grandparents.
I urge those who may be seeking God to come and trust Jesus Christ as their one and only Saviour. Then you can enjoy the relationship with our wonderful and caring Creator God who showed His love for us on the cross.