I remember the day I gave my life to Christ like it was yesterday. It was October of 1996 and it was at my former church. The church was very focused on the appearance as a sign of holiness. I was taught that holiness was something you strive for, something you worked towards with everything in you. You had to work out your salvation daily and I got a long list of ‘dos and don’ts”. As I was just a teenager at the time, I was eager to start this journey and enjoy my salvation. I put off all my jewellery, got rid of my trousers and denounced all forms of ungodliness as I was told. The devil was my biggest enemy and I had to pray daily to ensure he was destroyed in my life. My struggles started on that day.
No one told me how very loved I was by God.
No one told me about grace.
No one talked to me about righteousness being by faith.
Nothing.
Looking back now, I recall how hungry I was for God. I had a peace that I was determined to keep at all costs. I prayed daily for all of my satanic enemies to leave, timed my prayers to be sure I was meeting the daily quota I had set for myself and blamed the devil for every unfortunate thing that happened to me. I had a book where I wrote down how many lies I had told and any other sin I had committed, real and perceived. I did not fully understand that Jesus had paid for all that and my record-keeping was giving the devil fodder to plague me with guilt. The feeling of guilt never left me and I was constantly crying out to God to save me. I didn’t know and I was never told that my sins plus the guilt were gone forever with the death of Jesus on the Cross.
The Bible has said it:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6
A few months after my salvation experience, I got fed up with never being able to achieve the standard of holiness I wanted and I gave up. This started the cycle of being in and out of a relationship with God. This continued for the next fifteen years; time the devil used to really try to mess up my life totally with depression, pain, heartbreak and so much more. Having been raised by a christian mother, I had a basic sense of morality and some knowledge of the Word of God. I just knew it was not meant to be this way and the promises I had read in the Bible must be achievable, somehow.
My life changed in 2011 when I came across a group of young christians. I noticed they were always so full of joy and seemed to genuinely love being christians. There did not seem to be anything they wouldn’t do for God, I was infected by their joy and love for God. I went for a service at that church and I decided that I was not going back to my cycle of depression and happiness, this was March 2011. Since then, I have gone deeper into the Word and learnt about the all-consuming love my Father in heaven has for me. A love that made Him send Jesus to die for my sins. It has been 6 years since then and even though I have gone through challenges, I have never gone back to the point where I didn’t revel in the love of God. I have learnt about the Grace of God through His work in my life, His mercy that never ends and His love that I encounter daily.
Today, I would be sharing some of the lessons I have learnt in the last 6 years, praying that it would impact your life and you would come to understand the depth of the Father’s love for you.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,” Ephesians 2:8
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
You can’t understand how much He loves you and nothing can take you away from it
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:38-39
There’s nothing good He won’t do for you
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
Romans 8:32
All blessings are yours
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”
Ephesians 1:3
You can’t live the way you want anymore, Christ’s love keeps you
“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
II Corinthians 5:14-15
I am always proud to say i am a product of a love that never quits. God’s love never quit on me, even in my worst days. Share below how you have known God’s love or any questions or opinions you might have!