Life is hard, right? It hurts a lot of the time, doesn’t it? I agree. Life is confusing and comes with a lot of adversities. Truthfully, I struggle a lot with overcoming these adversities. I think everyone does though. And that’s fine. I’ve learned that there is one way that has helped me get through every hardship and adversity that has come my way. That is what I am writing about: Jesus Christ and Christianity. I’m not writing this to change any opinions, just to share my experience with the religion. 

My Testimony

Before I met Jesus:

I was born on September 14, 2009 into a christian household, in fact I watched my mom and my dad get baptized together in 2013. My family was very involved in Church and Christianity. The church was always very inviting. Then my dad died in 2015. My mom was a mess and was too drained to get up for church. The pastor did everything he could for us (and for him I am very thankful.) However, we stopped going to church for a really long time. We were basically out of the religion completely. I wasn’t really sure what happened at the time, because I was a dumb kid, but I realized a while after that I was a bad person. I realized I was full of hatred, anger, and honestly full of evil in my heart. And, let me say, I am by no means a good person now. I am very, very imperfect, but it was at that time a couple years ago. 

When I met Jesus

Then I opened my Bible. I read the first couple chapters of Matthew, one of the four written gospels and the first book of the New Testament. I read in depth the context and purpose of each verse. I tried  to get the most out of opening my Bible after years and years. Immediately I recognized the wisdom in it. I saw the love and passion of Jesus Christ, and I saw that this was something I should be pursuing. Back then, I didn’t finish Matthew. I went straight into something else, trying to learn the most I could just so I could find if this is something I should devote my life to. I read some of the book of Proverbs, skipping around just to learn more about whether I should get back into this rather than reading for the wisdom in it. I read through a bit of Revelations to see what the Bible said about future plans. (This, however, is not what I should have done, by the way. To anyone who reads this, I urge you to finish the book you are reading. Please don’t jump around the book.) After reading a bit, I learned that this is something I should be doing. I questioned why I ever stopped “being involved” in the church, for lack of a better term. I wondered why we ever “quit religion.” So I was now, at this time, what is called a “lukewarm Christian.” I believed in God and Jesus, but I didn’t put my faith in them. Faith is what differentiates regular believers from those who are saved. I read my Bible whenever I had time rather than making time for him. I prayed whenever I wanted something from him instead of praying to say thank you to him and worshiping him. On top of that, I didn’t go to church. 

After I met Jesus

I grew in my faith. After being this “lukewarm Christian,” I started to read more and pray more. I put my faith in Jesus and believed in the loving, patient God that I believe in now. I saw a real change in how I felt. I said that before I met God I felt this hatred in my heart. Now, after I met him, I felt a real joy that I hadn’t felt since my dad had passed. It was an unexplainable joy that I could only place on my faith in Christ. Again, by no means am I a good person, in fact the Bible says no man is good, but I felt a joy in God that I can’t explain. I felt love, warmth, really a multitude of feelings I hadn’t felt since I stopped going to church. 

I started going to church again just a few months ago, probably in March of this year. I saw my first baptism at that church. Baptism is a sacrament where you get dunked in water because you believe in the Lord. That’s why I am writing this. I’m being baptized on October 20th, which is part of the reason I wanted to write it. I put my faith in Jesus Christ and I wanted to share my experience with him with people who don’t know. I know people have had bad experiences with churches and just the religion in general. I also know people have had problems with just believing in a “nonsensical” being. But I will admit, if you bring yourself to read and just see for yourself, eventually you will see the wisdom and joy that I’ve seen. I’ve learned, in Christ, you can learn to love everybody, no matter how hard it may be to love them. God bless.