I am just beside myself about something. The LifeWay event team (in charge of all the Living Proof Lives, Going Beyonds, Abundance events, etc) thought up such fun ideas for the booklet that participants will get at the LPL Simulcast on September 15, 2012. One of them involves you. They want to hear testimonies from you about how you are living proof that God’s Word is alive and active and that His Son redeems. (This is not meant to have anything to do with me or with this ministry. It’s about YOUR own personal story with Jesus.) They are going to go through each one of them, find a great cross section of testimonies, select 5 stories and add them to the booklet for the whole simulcast community to read! And, that, Sister, will be a batch of women from all over the place.
Here’s what you do: In a comment to this post, write a 200-250 word testimony about how God has accomplished a work in you or through you that leaves no other viable explanation (in your eyes) than Himself. Use your words carefully and save them all for your testimony! You might consider doing it on a word document then cutting and pasting it into a comment so you can really think about what you want to say. Your participation through a comment will act as your automatic release for the publication of your testimony if yours is selected, SO, be sure, Sweet Thing, that you don’t say more than you mean to. You know your blog mama’s trying to protect you here.
Listen, these will be such a blast because, even if only 5 get to be selected for the booklet, just think how we are going to encourage one another and build up each other’s faith! NOT ONE STORY WILL BE WASTED. Thousands of eyes see these posts and comments. Girlfriend, T-E-S-T-I-F-Y! I will be sitting on pins and needles to watch these come in. Let’s call the deadline for your entries midnight on Thursday, April 26th.
The five who are selected will be contacted by LifeWay and will win the following:
- Free registration of the 2012 Living Proof Live simulcast for a small group of 7-14 of your friends!
- Free copy of Praying God’s Word
- Free James member book (I realize lots of you may already have one of these but I’ll get these five signed if you want.)
- A special section in the Living Proof Live simulcast listening guide including YOUR story, Girlfriend! (We’ll want your picture, too, if you’re willing to submit it to us. You’ll be contacted and asked for it if you are selected.)
One of the things we’re so excited about this year for our Living Proof Live Simulcast is that, for the very first time, small groups and INDIVIDUALS are able to participate. If it’s anything like previous years, women will be joining us from church buildings, military bases, and prisons, but this year for the FIRST TIME, also from living rooms and couches. You can watch all day in your jammies if you want to!
If this event sounds fun to you, go ahead and get that thing on the calendar: September 15, 2012. We are believing God to permeate walls, embattled minds, and rock-hard hearts and speak words of life, freedom, redemption, ministry. AND UNITY, for crying out loud.You game??
I love you guys so much. Can’t wait to hear from you!
From LifeWay:
If you would like more information about the simulcast or how you can be a host, visit www.lifeway.com/lplsimulcast.
I was so excited to get to share God’s story for me with others. It is my prayer that this will help someone else. With much love, here it is:
I grew up in a very dysfunctional, non-church family. Life was very hard for me. Some of my earliest memories were of feeling unloved and worthless. I began considering committing suicide at age 6, in the first grade. Those thoughts continued for the next 10 years. Every time I would make my mind up to “do it”, something would stop me. Praise God I never had the courage! It was only after I dedicated my life to Christ at age 16 that suicide was no longer an option.
Life still wasn’t easy. My messed up childhood had left scars and strongholds that still made life very difficult. My parents divorced and each remarried. I struggled with relationships with all four parents. The relationship I have with my Mom took the worst beating. We hardly spoke for about three years. But God is good! Today I can celebrate having fully restored relationships with ALL my parents, biological, step and the Spiritual parents God has given me (yes, I now have 6 God fearing parents- a far cry from growing up feeling unloved). God has told me in His Word that He thinks I’m wonderful, beautiful and full of value. He has used that ancient text to release me of some SERIOUS strongholds and I know He will continue the good work He has started in me. No matter what happens, I know that I belong to Christ and that life is so good because He is so good.
Elaine,
I don’t hardly post but this really spoke to me. It gave me hope.
There was little time to transition our guest room into a nursery for our baby girl so we got to work. The evening that Scott, my husband, and I tackled the task of getting the room ready was a busy one. We were working side by side with enthusiasm over adding on to our family. A long awaited answer to a prayer was on its way! As my man was putting the crib parts together and I was preparing to remove the items from the shelf, I was struck by the decor on the shelves. On the book shelves in front of me was a beautiful hand made vase that had been made by Indians we had received as a gift years earlier. Placed on two other shelves in that room were hand carved animals I had gotten from Limuru, Kenya my senior year in high school. At that moment I saw that God had already prepared our daughters room with her ethnicity. She would be Lumbee Indian African American. My husband and I wept at what He allowed us to see. He had purposed from the beginning this time and place. As always He had already charted the path and gone before! When I was a young girl in Africa buying those hand carved animals I know He was smiling and taking delight in how He would manifest Himself and His amazing plan to me and my man years later. We are awed at the works of His hands!
What a beautiful God story! Thank you for sharing.
I got married in October 2006. Little did I know two and a half weeks later I would be a widow. I dated my husband many years ago and we ended up going our separate ways. Then in 2003 we started dating again. We got married in the mountains of Tennessee. The day we were suppose to have our reception was the day I had to go and pick out his casket. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my life. His sister kept saying “Our God is a good God”, I thought to myself how can she say that. I went through a grief program through the church I have since joined, I understand more about life and death now and know for a fact if it weren’t for God I don’t know where I would be. I don’t understand how people go through grief (or life for that matter) without God in their lives…
Thank you for sharing your story!
My parents divorced when I was a teenager. My relationship with my father was not good, probably because at age 11 he called me “fat”, which I was not. Until a few years ago he didn’t know the devastation that it had caused. It ruled my life!
I have spent the past 40 years battling a low body/self esteem. EVERYTHING revolved around my weight. No pictures with the kids, missed family events, etc. In At age 39 after doing Breaking Free 2xs, I joined Weight Watchers and lost 65# only a few years to gain it all back. My real healing began a few years ago when I wrote my dad a letter asking him to forgive me for the anger I had towards him.
When I rejoined WW in 2010, my focus was not on 0.2 lbs but being obedient to Him! After reading Made to Crave I realized that I was overweight physically and underweight spiritually. I wanted my body to be His healthy temple. It has been a long 2+ years but He remains faithfull. I am close to being a healthy weight again. Most importantly I am “living proof” that 40 years of wandering can be used for His glory. I’m looking forward to being used as His vessel of hope!!
I was raised in a loving Christian home, and I’ve been a believer since I was 10, when I walked the aisle on Palm Sunday and was baptized on Easter. I have as white bread a testimony as you’ll likely ever hear. While I’ve always known I was very blessed, there have been times when I’ve actually been envious of those whose amazing stories of redemption gave clear cut evidence that they were living proof of a living God. It seemed they were somehow more saved.
As I’ve moved through life since that long-ago Easter, my Jesus has walked me through some significant detours on my life’s road. My faith has always been strong; however, when I was asked to share my testimony at a retreat a few years ago, I almost made an excuse not to, for fear my uneventful story wouldn’t do God justice. But I felt the Lord nudging me, so I relented, and rather apologetically told my story.
Almost before I finished, a woman stood up and said, “Don’t ever apologize for your story. You were saved, and you have the testimony that most of us wish we had.” In that moment, I realized that no one is a greater sinner than another; no one is more, or less, saved.
I know, now, that even without incredible fan-fair, radical change still took place in my 10-year-old heart all those years ago. That makes my story worth telling, and it makes me living proof, too.
Well said. Thank you for sharing. It’s true, no matter what our background, God truly did an amazing thing when he chose us and rescued us from the mire of sin! I like your point that none of us are more, or less saved.
Thanks for sharing!!! I love your testimony!!!!
What a great responsibility you have carried all these years to hold onto your blessings and NEVER let go. The devil is SO jealous and would love to snatch that testimony. Don’t ever, ever, ever let go! I’m praising God because of your testimony, Melinda! Thank you!
I am the girl that loves hearing people’s stories, but when it came to sharing my own, I was terrified. It wasn’t until I surrounded myself with people who valued authentic relationships and sharing life together, did my walls begin to fall and the past several years have been very life transforming.
MONUMENTAL. That is the only word I can use to describe the past year of my life, monumental, monumental on so many levels. This has been a year of breakthrough, of freedom and of victory. I graduated with a Psychology degree back in 2006 after changing my major 5 different times. I finally settled on Psychology because I would be able to finish more quickly than any other option. I started off as an Elementary Ed major but soon changed that because I was afraid of taking the Praxis. For 9 years I was held in fear by that test. This past November, I took that test and PASSED! I am now in a Graduate program getting my teaching license! Praise Jesus.
After a 12-year struggle/addiction with pornography, I can now proclaim victory over that beast. Hallelujah! My Jesus has walked with me on that journey from day one and never gave up on me. In His name there is power to BREAK every chain. This verse has been my lifeline “For You equipped me with strength for the battle.” Psalm 18:39. We are not alone!
I have consistently struggled with my weight, the majority of my life. I became a runner 2 years ago, and it has been one of the most powerful things in my life. Jesus speaks to me on a lot of my runs. It is through running that He has renamed me. I carried around so much shame. Shame about my addiction, my weight, and failing… it has been through running that my Father has renamed me over comer, visionary, prophet, lovely and valued. I have run 10 races in the past 2 years and this year I will finish a ½ marathon and a sprint triathlon! WOOHOO!!
What a year this has been. Praising Jesus for being so present to me. He has turned my grief into joy and my mourning into dancing.
“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
BEHOLD, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way
in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19
Praise God!!! What a Blessing Story! He healed my pornography addiction as well! He is so Good! He renamed me too! I am His! Thanks for your story!
I grew up knowing all about Jesus, but I always knew there was more to Christianity than what I was experiencing. I knew that I didn’t live a life filled with the peace and joy that is so often talked about in the Bible.
It was not until I was about 22 years old that God revealed his wonder to me. I had suffered from an eating disorder for 8 years, and was so weary from the wounds accrued during my search to fill the ache within. I couldn’t take the torment anymore, and cried out to God for his healing touch, but this time I meant it. Soon after, I had a heart altering and life-changing encounter with Him. The Bible became alive to me. It was as if “the veil had been lifted” from my eyes, and God was revealing himself to me one moment at a time and even in the littlest of things. He used His word to reprogram my mind and heart. His truths penetrated and exposed every lie Satan had spoken over me.
Since that day, He has so gently resurrected the life He died for me to have. I have been made whole, and no longer deal with the identity crisis that once was the battlefield in my mind. My identity is now found in the fact that I am a beautiful daughter of a fierce King who went even unto death to prove His love for me!
As a young teen, I was beyond TERRIFIED of public speaking. I remember being in middle school, my voice and whole body shaking, perspiring, nearly crying in panic when I had to speak in public. My fear was painfully awkward, both to me and the audience. I made every effort to avoid having to speak in public, but there were times I simply had to do it for a class, and it was a miserable experience.
Sadly, I knew in my heart that sometimes I had something of value to say. But I knew there was no way I could speak before a crowd. Years later when I was studying at a Christian college, I took a life-changing course on the book of Romans. For some reason, as I studied and read about Romans 12:1-2, it struck me that I did not have to be conformed to anybody’s opinion about me, even my own. I could be transformed by the renewing on my mind if I offered myself as a living sacrifice to God.
So I gave myself to God anew, and asked Him to transform me. The next time I had to make a speech, my fear was gone! From that day on, for 30 years, I have had absolutely no problem speaking to groups large and small. Just yesterday I was reminded that public speaking is a great fear for many people. I am living proof that God can transform women who are terrified about public speaking into effective speakers. He can do it FOR YOU!
Wow! Thanks for sharing! I can relate to the fear of public speaking, especially in Christian settings, because of the whole “teachers will be judged more strictly thing,” but you are so right that we don’t have to be subject to our own judgment of ourselves!
As a perfectionist, I never meet my own expectations. But I don’t have to! I don’t have to fear the opinion of man, either. The only judge we have is the God of all grace. Wow, thanks again for sharing.
In 2003 I met up with an old besty from my childhood and we decided to pack up and move to College Station to “go to school.” Three months later I was pregnant and ended up moving in with the father of my child in a nearby town. We did not marry, and he was unfaithful. I was in a very strange town, far away from home with a 6 month old baby, alone. I decided to stay and finish my schooling. I got a flat tire. The guy who fixed my tire got my number. Three weeks later we were married. I wanted to go home so bad. I got to go back for a short time, but due to my husband’s job we had to go back to that original area. Our marriage was horrible, we ended up separated and nearly divorced. I was pregnant with our second child, with no money, still in school, and no provider. Our church provided for all of our needs while my husband was away. I thought I was supposed to get a divorce. But God sent these people in my life to speak truth, and taught me that there was another way. Six weeks later, my husband came back to apologize, confessed, repented and surrendered his life to the Lord. Since, my husband has answered the call to pastor and we are still in the same area at our home church, where we met God and He changed my life.
“I was born and grew up in Paris, France. My mother was French, my father Hungarian. I never heard anything about God, the Gospel and who Jesus was. My mother was a non-practicing Catholic, my father a non-religious Jew. He was in concentration camps during World War II and met my Mom in Paris right after the war. I was the first of four children, with very low self-esteem and full of insecurities. Two things gave me hope: nature and music. I had a first conviction about “God the Creator” when I was in the Alps at the age of 12. At 16, I met Daniel, my husband-to-be, in a classical guitar class where he was one of the teachers. Not long afterwards we started dating and began a “search for the meaning of life, which really was “a search for God”. What we saw or heard about religion around us didn’t appeal to us. So we looked into Eastern religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, including practicing yoga and believing in reincarnation. Meanwhile we got married and had a son, Oliver. When Oliver was two years old, we went to India in order to intensify our search. We came back more empty than ever. Daniel started to read the Bible, as one of several “religious books”. After about a year, he had an encounter with Jesus reading the story of the Wise Men that led him to repentance and surrender. During all these years of searching, I was in a desperate state because of loneliness, not being able to trust anybody and not having any friends. In a distressed cry-out to “God the Creator”, I received in my heart the absolute conviction that it was Jesus who was answering and comforting me. So the equation was as life-changing as it was simple: If Jesus can speak into my heart, it means he is alive; if he is alive, it means He is God; if He is God it means the Bible is the truth. Daniel and I became Christians within days of each other. Our first thought was: We are probably not the only ones on the face of the earth who have discovered who Jesus is, but where are the others? It took us over six months to find other Christians in Paris (we had never even heard the word “evangelical”).
Did Jesus change something in our lives? EVERYTHING! He changed our personal lives from despair to Life, our relation as a couple and as a family, our vision of the world and led us to the salvation message we ended up wanting to share with everybody else. We often felt we had been at the bottom of a pit, had tried every effort to “save ourselves”, which made us fall even deeper into the pit. Then, when we felt the desperate need of God’s intervention, somebody put his hand into the pit and took us out: It was the hand of Jesus…
10 years after becoming Christians, we became missionaries – we still are – with an American International Mission, HCJB Global. We are involved in French radio production, music and for me translation. We spent 17 years in Ecuador and three years in Ivory Coast, West Africa. Jesus IS indeed who He says He is in His Word.”
Maybe you are going to wonder: How did a French lady living presently in France become a Siesta? We go to the US regularly because Oliver and his family (his wife Rachel, and four children under the age of six) live in Jackson, TN. Yes, this is the same Jackson where Travis Cottrell and his family live and where he is the Worship Leader of one of the large and growing churches. We had a chance to meet him. When we go to Jackson, we are graciously being lent a mission house by another local church. The women’s group is very much involved in Beth’s Bible studies. The very first time I joined them, I was “hooked.” I have done most of the studies either in Jackson or by myself. I am also doing Beth’s studies in France with a couple of friends who speak English (we are currently doing Esther, and this is our fifth study together).
I became a Siesta about two years ago and I follow closely everything that is happening. I even became friend through the LPM blog with another Siesta from Washington State.
We are planning to move to the US next year to be close to our family and to be involved in the ministry for which Oliver had a vision growing up as a missionary kid: http://www.misssiontm.org.
I would like to share one more thing: One of my deepest desires (should I say “dreams”?) would be to translate into French one of Beth’s books/Bible study as we don’t have anything equivalent in French. The only Bible study that has been translated (without the videos) is the very first one: “A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place”. I made some inquiries for that project to become a reality, but it has not been able to come to fruition yet. Thanks for your prayers.
The Lord bless each one of you very much dear Siestas, our wonderful teacher and her entire family, as well as the LPM and LifeWay teams.
Françoise (or Frances)
My story is a story of hope and healing. One many people can relate to it. As a young child I was raped. I lived a life full of shame and hate. I hated who I was; I hated who I was becoming. I was sad, angry, and a cutter. I allowed myself to be manipulated in relationships. I went on a weekend about the Holy Spirit. There I told God I was tired of going around this mountain, whatever You need to do let’s do it. God gave me a new friend to talk with and listen to me. Six months later I went to the doctor, where it was discovered I had some major scar tissue, I was really torn up from being raped. I had to have surgery to remove it. I went into the surgery praying that when the doctor removed the scar tissue that God would take all the hate, hurt, unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, blame, and feelings of unloved, and guilt. Two nights after the surgery I sat on my bed in tears with God, everything was gone! God had taken my hurt and replaced it with “His scar” on my heart. Best of all God taught me who I was in Christ, showed me my value in His eyes, taught me to forgive for my benefit. God taught me that He truly loves me for me, healed me and is helping me help others. No person on Earth can do what God has done.
I never expected life to end up where it did. I had been raised to love God. Yet here I was, bent, crippled and broken; the after affects of a heart-wrenching season of sin. I slowly began to heed the loving voice of Jesus that continued to call and woo me. I decided that I would love God quietly but could certainly never publically serve Him. I couldn’t bare the thoughts of further sullying the name of Christ. Caught within my crippled space, friends and loved ones had no idea I was spiritually broken because my sin was secret … and devastating.
However, God in His faithfulness brought a precious woman into my life. This woman introduced me to the study of God’s word. I decided that this practice wouldn’t harm any one else and as I fell in love with scripture, I began to change. I found myself across the pages of the Bible.
Miraculously I have gone from being spiritually crippled to gratefully, humbly, once again serving my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now, I’m connected with other women who have been broken and are now discovering a love of scripture. The joy and privilege of watching the lives of others change as they discover their worth, value and identity in Jesus Christ is indescribable.
God alone makes the difference! He can do what no person can. He raised this spiritual life from the dead and brought redemption, restoration and shouts of gratitude and praise. I love Him!
When applied to the areas of our broken and crippled lives, God’s word truly is such a powerful and healing balm. Thank you for sharing your beautiful testimony!
I submitted an entry on the morning of April 20. I can not find my testimony. I came here to check to see if it had been posted, because it wasn’t right after. I had even tried posting it twice, but it told me I had already posted that entry. I just wanted you to have it…. Please let me know.
TJ
In my 30’s, I was a lost and confused woman. I desperately wanted to be loved and find attention from anyone. I discovered the internet and fell head over heels into addiction. Addiction to the dark world of sex, dark magic, chat rooms and make believe worlds. As the darkness seeped deeper into my soul, this online world became a reality and I began practicing witchcraft.
I had never really been into christianity. I saw all christians as judgemental and unloving, people who lived in their perfect little worlds. I definitely did not fit there.
But God saw me. He saw that I was a mother who desperately wanted to love her two children, but didn’t know how. God watched me tear apart a marriage of 15 years for affairs. At the darkest part of my life, God stepped in.
God stopped me the only way He knew how. I became pregnant at the age of 38. Not only pregnant, but pregnant with twins. The Dr.’s told me I would never carry the pregnancy to term, but through God I did.
I can say now that I LOVE God with all of my heart, mind and soul. God pulled me out of a pit of self destruction into a life of love, trust and beauty. I am truly a representation of beauty from ashes.
I am Living Proof
L – I was lost, alone and a liar. Now I know I am loved by the Lord God Almighty.
I – I tried to be invisible, even to myself. So no one, not even me would know I was being sexually abused. Now I know that the Lord does not ignore the cries of the afflicted. He saw me and was right by my side.
V – I thought my life had no value and I had no voice. Now I am victorious. Jesus is my Victor and I have heard His voice calling, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”
I – I was insane and wanted to die. Now I know nothing is impossible with God!
N – My life was a day-to-day survival walk of a nomad. Today I walk in the Spirit. I am a new creation.
G – I used to have a goal to be good, but always fell short. Now my goal is to do the will of a good and gracious God.
P – I used to believe the Lord was a punishing God and I was doomed to eternity in hell. Now I know He is a God of peace. He is perfect and pure. He will provide a place for me in paradise.
R – I used to believe a woman who drank, did drugs to numb her pain and was promiscuous would always remain the same. Now I know Jesus Christ redeemed my sin, ransomed me and imputed me with His righteousness.
O – Before I was saved, my mouth was full of obscenity. Today I am an overcomer, who is overwhelmed with Jesus.
O – I was an outsider to joy. Now I rejoice that I can participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that I may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.
F – I am living proof that a frightened, flawed female can believe she is fully redeemed and is living to fulfill God’s purpose by teaching women that the Lord Jesus Christ frees us and fills every crack with His fountain of life!!!
Thank you so much for this! Very creative and captivating! Love seeing the deliverance of the Lord and how He has redeemed you, as well as, restored you! He has given you a powerful testimony to impact others for His kingdom! Praising God for you Larci and the deliverance He has poured forth in your life! Blessings!
Thank you for sharing your “Living Proof” story. A beautiful testimony!
I love this Larci!
Don’t know where to start….two years ago I was a broken girl….who didn’t know she was broken. I grew up in a Christian family. Well we went to church but didn’t live it out. I had several hurts as a teen and as a result had very low self esteem. Thought I was never good enough and never would be. My life looked picture perfect. Wonderful Christian husband, great church, working as a nurse, house, 2 kids and a dog. Everyones dream…but I couldn’t understand why I still felt like something was missing. My mom talked me into going to a Women of Faith Conference and I swear that they were talking directly to me. God was stirring me in a major way. He literally dropped a dear sister-in-the-Lord in my lap. She became a wonderful friend and mentor. A few months later I started Breaking Free…it completly changed my life. God broke the chains I had been carrying for years. I left my job as a nurse, started facilitating bible studies and now 2 short years later am the Administrator at my church and in full time ministry. God is a God of second chances and I am Living Proof!
If there had been a “Least Likely to Become A Christian” superlative in high school, I would have most certainly won. I was raised in a dysfunctional family with a long history of divorce and addiction. These same addictions are present in my extended family to this very day.
So it would come as no surprise that I was pregnant and a borderline alcoholic by age 18. Although I believed in God, I was convinced that there was no way He was concerned with my insignificant little life.
My life changed on the day before my 19th birthday, when the life of my first child ended in abortion. My outgoing personality changed to introvert and I became consumed with hiding my “secret.”
But God was pursuing me in spite of my sin.
I met a wonderful man from a Christian family and we eventually married. Two and a half years later I left him. Three years into our marriage and two weeks before our divorce was to be final, the Lord chased me down and radically saved my soul.
The Lord put our marriage back together, called my husband to preach, and led me to a group Bible study where He sent His word and healed me from the abortion that had almost destroyed my life.
Does the Word work? You bet it does. I now minister to women who have had abortions in the SAME building where I had my abortion.
I am living proof that God’s Word works!
Powerful testimony! Thank you so much for sharing.
God is so good! Thanks for sharing with us Kelli!
Psalm 40:2
I was raised in a Christian home,I was saved at nine & never doubted God.I was always insecure & felt unworthy.I had loving parents & siblings.I don’t know why I felt this way. I was popular & a good girl but I was always searching for love,something to fill the void in my heart. I was raped at 14 & from then on I just wanted someone to love me for me,I never told my parents.I made very unwise choices with boys & started drinking at 14.I finally met the love of my life at 16 & he is my husband of 22yrs, God’s amazing grace has saved us from divorce many times.The night I was thinking of cheating,My husband called from a golf outing with the church & told me he just got saved! What? God’s timing IS perfect! But what He couldn’t give me was what Jesus could. A relationship to fill that void in my heart. However,we were both alcoholics & even though God was convicting me for some time,alcohol had me. I made a few more bad decisions & almost lost my husband & boys but by the GRACE of GOD & HIS MERCY HE saved me & lifted me out of the slimy pit & gave me a firm place to stand.By God alone I have been sober for 9yrs this July & I could write a book about God’s love, provision,& faithfulness. I say this all the time-
I am living proof!
I walked a road of infertility for several years. The details of the journey aren’t important; God’s faithfulness on the journey is the story I want to share. As waves of grief and loss continued to pound, my foundation of faith cracked. Somewhere in that place of darkness, I turned my back on God. While I continued to believe in the existence of God, in anger I stopped believing in God’s goodness and love. My heart was bitter, and my faith was shattered. But in His grace, God never stopped loving me. He relentlessly pursued my heart. As author Lauren Winner eloquently writes, glimmers of holy kept interrupting my gaze. Step by step, God helped me out of that pit of despair, even though I didn’t always recognize it was Him. I finally surrendered my heart, and promised God I would love and trust Him, even if I never had a baby. And He gave me the peace that passes all understanding. Today, He has given me a ministry, a tender heart to encourage other women on their own painful journeys. God is using my story to be part of His larger story of redemption and grace, and I am filled with joy.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Psalm 40:2-3 (NIV)
THE DEVIL IS A LIAR! I believed those lies to the point that fear and worry paralyzed my life. Through the living Word of God I learned the TRUTH,and fought back! I had victory in Jesus!..then Satan,knowing he could not harm me any longer, turned to my child.He lied,attacked,burdened,and enclosed a once bright life in darkness.My child stopped living,and at the age of 17,wanted to leave this world,at their own hand,and the hand of the devil. It seemed Satan was saying, “let’s see how strong you are now mom”,as he laughed in my face. Our journey went from a dark bedroom,to a dark hospital room,and back again. The spiritual battle was on! I fought day and night with GOD’S WORD,until my child had the strength to fight on their own. Our house was heavy and darkness enveloped us all. I yelled out,”devil! You will NOT have my child!!” The battle was long and hard, but God carried us through. We walked by faith, not by sight, for what we saw was not healing and wholeness..yet. God promised He will never leave nor forsake us, and I stood on that promise, for myself,my child,my family. I say through tears of gratitude, that Jesus overcame,and that battle was won in the glorious name of my Lord and Savior!He turned sorrow to JOY, darkness to LIGHT,bondage to FREEDOM! I will praise Him with every breath He gives! Is God real?I hear people question..The LIGHT and LIFE in my child who witnesses for His Creator is indeed LIVING PROOF!
I grew up thinking I was fat. Like really fat. Like the kind of terrible self awareness that take me to a pool fully dressed, baggy tshirt and pants. In order to get INTO said pool I would walk to the edge, quickly toss off the shirt, slip off the pants, and jump in praying “I hope no one saw me!” My goodness, I was 5’3″ weighing in at a banging 125. Why? Why the huge morbid self distortion?
I am addicted to perfectionism that’s why and the world around me through up a standard of “perfection” that I could not keep up with. I spent my entire youth, ages 10 to 20 on a perpetual state of chasing after the wind. I knew I was crazy, I knew I needed healing and growing but to me it literally felt impossible. I would think “I am just wired this way and there is nothing I can do about.”
I was right. There was NOTHING I could do about it. But my Jesus. My God. My King. My Savior. My Friend. My EVERYTHING…HE can do ANYTHING! He took His daughter. His broken, hurt, and blind child that had lived so many years in the darkness of this world’s chase for physical beauty…He took me and He literally turned my world up on its hinges.
I came to know Christ when I was 20 years old and I began the path to healing then. Hours in His Word, Days in His presence, Months on my knees…but it did not happen over night. God was working in me a Spirit that trusted Him and mind like His own but my body and my eyes would still not believe. I KNEW that God’s Word said I was beautiful and so, in faith, I believed it. But it was superficial.
This past year FINALLY nine years, one marriage, and three kids later I get it. The scales have literally fallen from my eyes and I live in blissful acceptance of His creation In Me and WOW is it GORGEOUS! Every curve on my body was sketched by HIS hand. Every pound, every dimple, is unique to me and I get it now. There was a piece of my Spirit held in darkness even though I was His child, you see I had still bought into the lie that physical achievement is a good and healthy goal to keep constantly at the top of my list. Baloney McFoney! The GOOD and HEALTHY goal for me to keep at top priority is living as a strong, faithful child of a King. I lied to myself thinking I can keep physical beauty up there on the list ALONG WITH my Spiritual beauty. Forget it. I was dead wrong.
So I killed it this year! Physical Beauty is dead to me. Well, I should say, outside my home it is. I still dabble in luring my husband in on a week to week basis with the my body that God has given to my husband alone. But to everyone else…bah it’s okay what they think. I find my worth in it NO MORE.
So bring it on pool!! I’ll do a flash mob on the deck in that bathing suit and then dive on in! Wahooooo! God’s freedom is so so…so so so so…so so so so good.
Maria,
I just had to tell you how deeply this testimony impacted me. I’m where you were. With summer coming up, I’ve been thinking of ways to avoid the pool with my 3 year old. What a shame, and what would that be teaching her? Your testimony gives me hope for freedom! Thank you!
Trinna
I grew as a preacher’s kid, saved at a young age. I married my high school sweetheart, we had three children and were active in church. However, I had never seemed to have a personal, daily walk with God. My activities in the church, attending Bible studies and praying at meals seemed to be the extent of my spiritual life. Then my husband passed away of ALS at the age of 32. I started a slow descent away from God.
I fell away and into a long season of sin. But God is merciful. During those 20+ years of sin, the Holy Spirit would nudge my heart and I would think, “Wow! I haven’t thought about God in days! What am I doing??”; He would bring to mind Scripture I had memorized as a child but I continued in sin. In God’s love, he brought me into a family with a sister-in-law who invited me to “John, The Beloved Disciple” Bible study. My life was transformed. I repented for my past. I began a daily and personal walk with God.
I thank Him for not giving up on me and for the Holy Spirit’s convicting through the years.
“For I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:38 (KJV)
I grew up in a loving Christian family, who has proved to be an amazing support system throughout my life’s journey thus far. I stayed on the straight and narrow path for many years, but began to dabble in a worldlier lifestyle in my late teens. I was sexually assaulted in college which derailed my faith as my foundation in Christ was not firm. I was definitely the rocky soil Jesus referred to. I struggled with a cyclical addiction to alcohol for many years and sought love and acceptance in meaningless relationships and false friendships while running from reality. Thankfully, God has a way of scooping us out of the muck and the mire when we least deserve it. Divine intervention led me from graduate studies in NYC to a modest non-profit Christian rehabilitation program called Southeast New Life for Girls in Maryland. As the Lord humbled me, my faith grew in His love and acceptance. I could not be more grateful for this experience. I now have a sincere and firm relationship with Jesus, and know that my future is secure in my Father’s hands. I look forward to seeing how he is going to unfold his divine purpose in my life and know he will use my desire to pour into others what he is steadily pouring into me! Thank you Jesus!
“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. I Peter 5:10
This is my testimony in a nutshell. At the age of 9 I accepted Christ as my Savior! I was gung-ho for Him, thinking one day I would be a missionary, only problem was, as I got older, I realized me and my big hair wouldn’t be too compatible over seas. After lots of moves, especially as a pre-teen, I was told to “bloom where you’re planted.” To which I did, only a little too much in high school. As I went off to college, I was honest with God and told Him I would serve Him after college, but these next four years were mine. Or so I thought. God allowed some suffering to get my attention. The summer before my junior year I found out I was pregnant! So what is a “good Christian girl” to do? Have an abortion, so no one would know and “it” wouldn’t interrupt my life. So I did it, thinking my troubles would be taken care of, only I found myself shackled to my shame. Finally, after years of living with the secret and shame, I found and accepted God’s grace and forgiveness that had been there all along. Christ restored me, making me strong, firm, and steadfast. I had been set free by grace!
my father was a baptist pastor my entire life. i was given every opportunity to know Jesus
and thought i did. in highschool, i got involved with a boy which led me down 5 years
of sin, pain, abuse, regret, and deep scars. but my God is faithful. through the prayers
of a church family, God rescued me. that was just the beginning of a long road of healing.
18 months later i gave my heart to Jesus. soon God provided the means
for me to attend Liberty University. this is where God truely did his mending. through the power
of God’s word, prayer, Godly women, and alot of patience, I began to come back to
to my true self. it was painful, but worth it! through it all there was a man that
i’d known since i was 14. he told me he had loved me for 11 years. God used this man’s unconditional
love to be Jesus to me. after much prayer, i realized he was the one God wanted me
to do life with. we have been married 9 years and have to 2 beautiful miracles. i have battled
absolute torment by the enemy for my mind, but i persevere because i know God’s called me to
be a warrior. i need to speak out against him and take back lives he’s stollen. this is my story.
At 16 I was called in a mighty way to the mission field. I felt the love of my Father speak meaning into my monotonous, stagnating ‘Christian experience’. I had a new zeal and I turned my eyes to international missions, looking toward to a future serving God.
Enter the deceiver: About that time I took God’s promise of a future in missions and attached prerequisites that I believe God would “of course” fulfill. First, I would need a husband; second a degree. So instead of pursuing missions I ran to first obtain these ‘necessities’.
Seven years, three failed attempts at a degree, three failed relationships and a shattered spirit later, I got on my face and cried out to the God I believed had forgotten me. I asked Him to remember me; to pull me out of the ‘tar pit’ of sin I was in. I relinquished my heart, begged him replace my mind with the mind of Christ, and begged to be allowed to fulfill His purpose for me. Though I was broken, I wanted so much to be useful to Him. God graciously welcomed me back…
I cut harmful ties, sold everything, and quit school. I needed soul-rehab. Only 3 months later, single and degreeless, I followed God to Africa as a missionary. Now I work representing a Christian orphanage in Uganda. My testimony is this: I was shattered but God has put me back together more beautiful than before. I am absolutely in love with Jesus.
I was literally born and raised in church. I accepted Christ into my heart at 11 years old, and vowed to live for and serve Him, which I did as best as I knew how. Unfortunately, a deeply imbedded fear of rejection, abandonment, and of being unloved was a catalyst for many poor choices, relationships, and life altering decisions that I made along the way. These fears caused me to be virtually paralyzed when standing against sin, thus I found myself spending the bulk of my adult years caught up in several codependent and dysfunctional relationships. I was tolerating and making peace with sin in both my own life and in the life of others–my husband, children, friends and family members. I drifted from His truth, all in the name of offering grace to others.
Seven years ago, God took me out into a spacious place and He rescued me (Ps. 18:19). That spacious place happened to be another state where I was away from everything I knew. I had no job, friends, church, children…absolutely nothing was familiar. I only had my husband, and my marriage of 23 years went into a tailspin, I was broken. I had nothing! But God was there. He saw me, drew me in with loving kindness, poured His Word over me and lovingly rescued me. I am living proof that He delights in us and will rescue us to bring us back to Him no matter how far we drift! That’s Amazing Grace!
Dear ones we must know the power of a good testimony is that we aren’t glorifying graphics and sensationalism. Our Father is a savior to “all” His creation. I tend to see the testimonies as limitting what He can do and it’s a done deal. It is a continuous work He longs to do in us. That’s the sound relationship that sustains. For we know in the latter rain a counterfeit will come. I am not saying that that counterfeit will steal your testimony but that he longs for you to make it all about him. We worship the True Christ who redeems daily in all situations. As long as we are breathing HE is working and stirring in our Heart. We couldn’t possibly know what HE has in store for us. We just can’t think High enough but one day soon He is going to show us all and reveal all for us to bow to the Truth. Always seek His word for you methodically and chapter by chapter and verse by verse. If you want to go deeper find yourself good Hebrew and Greek dictionaries and stay with the KJV as close to the original manuscripts. May your studies be enlightened and Holy Spirit lead in His truth and Light.
I so agree…….we were, however, asked to share a specific time. 🙂
I must say getting this down to 250 words was quite a challenge. Orginally it was almost 500 words and I wondered how I could condense it even more. Well I did, this is a very condensed version. This took place over a ten year span. I hope this helps someone. GOD is GREAT.
We were married in 1992, shortly after that he became ill; refused to get help. In the winter of 1994-5, I decided that I couldn’t live like that and started working two jobs so I could leave.
While working the second job, an affair was started; talked to him almost every day; saw him once/twice a month.
September of 1995, my husband decided that he needed help and I felt how can I leave him if he is willing to get help?
2001 (same year my husband and I found Christ), I hadn’t seen or talked to the other guy for about 6-9 months, things got stressful for me; started the affair again; saw him three times 2002.
Divorce was being talked about but I was having a hard time saying yes because I didn’t know how I could I lose my best friend.
During my last visit to other guy, things didn’t go well; decided that I couldn’t be with him.
The affair was over, marriage was being worked on; my thoughts were in the way of my marriage improving.
One night I couldn’t take the thoughts anymore, I wanted them gone; I was in bed crying, I asked God for help.
The moment I prayed, calmness came over me and I knew that I could tell the devil he no longer had the power to use this against me.
Our 20th anniversary is this October, God has restored our marriage and we couldn’t be happier.
It’s been over five years of extreme trusting God and allowing Him to heal and change my shattered heart. If I refuse to testify of God’s great love, grace, and mercy I am denying the glory that belongs to Him and Him alone. I sit here today with gratitude and a love I cannot express for the One who is Mighty to Save! This is just a glimpse of my story.
As long as I can remember I have loved Jesus. As I grew things were said and done to me that caused me to hide this love and light. Soon all that was left was a flicker of the flame that once existed. As a result I began to build a fortress around my heart as protection. Soon the wall that was built to protect, became a stronghold itself. For within my fortress I listened to the lies that went against who God said I was. As a result one of the things I felt was that I needed to be punished. So I found myself down the slippery road of self-injury. Then one day Jesus’ nail pierced hands broke through the despair. A day I shall not soon forget. For in that moment I realized that what Jesus did for me upon the cross was ENOUGH and by punishing myself I was breaking His heart by saying what He did was NOT good enough. My broken heart was now not surrounded by lies but in the hands of the healer of brokenness. I felt a new beat and a new hope within. God has been making me into a new creation and my heart has felt the touch of the healers nail pierced hands. I pray that whoever is reading this will too find the healing touch of the great physician’s hands and allow Him in to transform their life.
My name is Stormy and this is my story of how I am “living proof”.
I was asked recently, “How do you know your God is the
real God, when other religions worship many gods?”
My response was, “I know my God walked this earth.
I had a spiritual conversion. My God saved me, my
marriage, healed me from alcohol, anorexia, and depression.”
God has also healed me from breast cancer, from fear that
consumer me, from worry, and from getting really angry.
When I was so broken and had no where to turn, when I prayed, “Help me! Help me, LORD!” God answered with
grace and mercy and saved a wretch like me. I was blind, but now I see. My life has never been the same. I’M NEW! God loosened my heavy chains and has give me the freedom that can only come from Him.
I praise Him for turning my life around and for the
opportunities He gives me now to help serve others
who are going through what I went through. Only by
the grace of God could this be possible.
What Satan meant for evil, God meant it for good. I am
living proof of how God can transform a person in darkness
and put the “Light” in them. I am forever grateful to
my Savior for His saving grace.
My story will be familiar to some of the older members of Siestaville and even the Lifeway Forums from back in the day! Whew! ~M
TESTIMONY:
In 2005, the enemy came against my family to Kill My Son, Steal My Faith and Destroy my Family. My eldest child was seriously injured in a car accident with three other youth. We spent eight days contending while he lay in a coma fighting for his life. Still God granted my prayer for mercy for my son and peace for my heart when Justin slipped quietly home to heaven.
Over the next three years I marked each step through the Valley of the Shadow of Death with God and His Word. I wept the bitter tears grief. Eventually I began to lead a grief recovery group for mothers who had lost children and have watched as God has delivered many of them to a place of hope and joy again.
The enemy did not win! My son is alive and well in heaven. My faith is stronger and I am blessed in spite of my loss. My family has found its way to life and hope again. It is because of Jesus, His love and grace in my life, for He is my comfort and my joy. I live to tell HIS Story – He filled our mouths with laughter and our hearts with gladness. What great things He has done. (Psalm 126)
Good morning!
Six weeks ago we were told our 11 year old son had restrictive cardiomyopathy. An extremely rare heart condition which would cause him to need a heart transplant every 10-15 years. My husband who is truly a gem asked God to give him the strength and stamina to research, and I mean research. Within three weeks we had an answer to prayer and throughout the past week Elijah has flourished. in December of 2010 Elijah weighed 68lbs., when we weighed him at Seattle Children’s April 6th he weighed 72lbs. A week later he weighed 77 lbs. miraculous healing?!!? You bet! His heart is healing we are convinced. On April 30th we will have an echocardiogram and I’m telling you that we will see changes in his diastolic function! There will be healing!
I have been given a great gift. The gift of searching, striving and reaching for contentment in Christ. This mom of four couldn’t have ever imagined that such a trial could turn into the most astonishing blessing. A blessing that literally leaves me breathless at times, and falling to my knees at others. Psalm 27:14, Jeremiah 33:3, Isaiah 58:8 and Elijah’s favorite Philippians 4:13. These verses we have mediated on. If you are interested I have a blog that I started a few weeks ago… http://www.loveforelijah.wordpress.com
Loving you all!
Kimmee Auxier
My testimony:
In February of 2011, I was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer with noted spread to the liver. At the time I had been having stomach pains that were unexplained and I kept seeking help in trying to relieve the pain. I ended up in the emergency department one night and basically refused to go home with just pain meds. My husband and I wanted answers so a CAT scan was performed. Upon completion of the test and receiving the results, the doctor came in and told me that I had cancer. I was then admitted to the hospital. Later that day as I sat in my hospital bed I remembered a very clear dream that I had had about a week before. In this dream, I came face to face with a lion. I remember very clearly thinking that it did not matter if it attacked me or not, or if I lived or not because the end result would be that I would see Jesus, perhaps sooner rather than later. I closed my eyes and started to praise my savior and at that point I woke up. The dream had other details that are too long for this post but it has given me the reassurance I have needed to face this disease (lion) in my life. All I need to do is keep my eyes on Jesus and He will take care of the rest. Without a doubt that dream was a gift from God.
Thanks for this…”the end result would be that I would see Jesus.” Amen! Courage+
God bless you for giving hope to others who are facing cancer at the moment, and who can affirm that wether Jesus heals them or not in this life, it will all turn out for the best, for His Glory. Keep up the faith!
I am living proof that God’s Word is alive and active and that His Son redeems!
As a child, I was physically, verbally, and emotionally abused by an alcoholic father. My mother tried to make up for his abuse, but it was like putting a band aid over a shark bite. At the age of 12 my parents finally divorced, but by that time the damage had already been done. By the time my teen years rolled around, I was sleeping with boys to get any kind of affection and doing drugs to numb the emotional pain that came from doing what I knew was wrong. By age 16 and the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I found myself pregnant. My high school sweetheart didn’t care. In fact, it was too much for him and his family to handle, so our relationship ended and I was left to deal with the guilt of a late term abortion that would eventually rear its ugly head in the form of more promiscuity, a failed marriage and more drug addiction. By the time I was 30, I had been addicted to cocaine for 18 years and once again found myself pregnant. This time however, I gave my life and dedicated my unborn child to the Lord Jesus Christ. I was instantly delivered from cocaine and have never looked back. We have walked with him ever since – including through His total healing of my, now 24 year old daughter, who was diagnosed last year with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Praise God for His unfailing love and power through His Son Jesus Christ!
Our family had just moved. I didn’t know my neighbors and didn’t have family nearby when my husband of 20 years told me he was leaving me for another woman. For months I struggled alone with depression taking its toll. Finally I realized I had to find a church. Mustering all the courage I could, I went to a little church close by. I don’t remember what was said, but within minutes I was in tears, running from the room. Immediately another woman came running after me. “I don’t know who you are or what is wrong, but God sent me to tell you He loves you.” That was my turning point. God still loved me. I wasn’t a failure in His eyes.
Nineteen years after my ex left and six years after I was happily remarried, I received some news regarding my first marriage that totally blind-sided me; news that would forever impact my life and my second marriage. Devastated I went to bed sobbing, pouring my heart out to God, certain that anger and bitterness would be erupting out of me. But none of those emotions surfaced. As my soul slowly quieted, I asked God why. Why wasn’t I angry? And in that still small voice He spoke to my heart and said, “Because that is not who you are any more.” Even with the news I had just received, I could forgive my ex and I knew without a doubt it was only by God’s amazing grace.
At 7AM a week after having a stillborn, I doubtfully prayed, “…If you are the good shepherd, show me!” Less than a minute later, Mrs. Josie, an older lady I hardly knew from church, knocked on my door.
“I believe the Holy Spirit told me to come to you. Was I right?” she humbly asked.
At 4:30AM that morning she awoke and prayed Psalm 23 over me and my husband. Then she came to me to lovingly explain how the Lord is my Shepherd—-having no idea what I had just prayed! I sat there, tears rolling down my cheeks, enveloped in the warm embrace of a God so kind that He would reveal Himself to me with such a tender answer to my desperate cry for comfort.
Before I dared utter the prayer, Mrs. Josie had already been praying for me and begun heading my way. I am forever inspired and humbled by her obedience. And my life is forever changed.
I know He IS the Good Shepherd. He loves me, leads me, and protects me. I take hold of His strong hand and continue to trust Him as I walk through scary times.
No one can ever take that treasure from me. It is inscribed on my soul. Several years have passed, and I say with sincerity that I would endure it all again because of the eternal treasure He gave me.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
John 10:27
Beautiful!
Tami, Thank you for sharing your beautiful God story. It was 26 years ago yesterday, April 23, that I, too, experienced a stillbirth. Thinking back on it, it is one of the most powerful spiritual markers in my life …. it is what brought me into a deeper and fuller relationship with my Lord Jesus — and as time has marched on, He has allowed more experiences to cross my path to deepen my relationship with Him still more. I love Him so!
Diane,
It was 16 years ago today that I delivered my baby, and I’m so happy to be able to share the story on this anniversary week in honor of what God has done! I was thinking this morning about when I meet that sweet baby girl in heaven. What will that be like? I know there won’t be tears in Heaven, but surely He will let me shed some tears of joy!
Thanks for your comment, and, once again, God’s timing amazes me.
Three years ago, while on a visit to my mothers some 250 miles away from our home I received the phone call. The one that changed my families life from that point forward. While I would never have said that I had the perfect family I thought we were moving forward. My husband was on the worship team, I worked in the office, my oldest daughter led a Jr. High girls group at her church and my two youngest were at Christian University. Funny how things are often not what they seem. On that day I would have said life was good. But then my youngest called and told me her daddy had been handcuffed, taken away by the police while the entire neighborhood watched. I was in shock but I knew the Lord was present with me. My daughter and I rushed home in shock to find my guilty, repentant husband. I knew I had to give him a chance to repent and recover. A year later he was dead but right with God. I would like to say that everything had been worked out between us but that was not the case. But we had worked out an uneasy peace, our neighbors were wonderful to us and did not spread our story as gossip, I had been brokenhearted and still am a little but I also had walked in hope and walked in the way I thought would honor God. That is a God thing because every part of me wanted to strike back and vent my hurt and grief. God carried me through the roughest time in my life. There is so much more to this story but I can tell you this. We serve a mighty and faithful God!
TESTIMONY:
I am still here!!! God is so faithful and good He is always there if we reach up and take His hand He will guide us through. I said a little girl poem on stage at our church when I was five and later at eleven or twelve gave my heart to the Lord. I have been on a journey made more difficult because of my own choices, but God knew my heart and after a time set me free.
As a child of six I was physically abused by a relative who lived nearby. this abuse went on until I went into high school. I developed eating disorders and suicidal tendencies. I married the first boy who asked and had two children, we were too young and he did not know the lord. the marriage ended in divorce after he left me for someone else. There were affairs I also lived through. I married again right off the bat to a man who did not know the Lord.
God is good after much prayer by my mother and sister and their church I came back to the Lord and my husband gave his heart to the Lord. He is a delivered alcoholic and so am I. God has delt with my earting disorders and still is and waves of wanting to end my life sill come to me but not as much. We have been married thirty seven years. God is my hope and strength and my salvation.
I was raised in a loving home, had a wonderful childhood, parents who loved me, attended Sunday school and worship every Sunday. I believed Jesus was the Son of God, but I didn’t have a relationship with Him. Though He never left me, at 17 years old, I left God.
I began looking for satisfaction from people when the only true satisfaction would come through a relationship with Jesus Christ
Marriage #1 – God blessed me with a son.
Marriage #2 – God blessed me with another son.
Both marriages failed.
Since I’d had to move home to my parents’, my boys and I started going to their church. The people there truly were the hands and feet of Jesus to me and my boys. Such love and grace they showed me. I became a member and was leading the singing. Mom played piano. Mom…
My mom had prayed me through my whole life, accepted me, loved me unconditionally – no matter what! Instead of looking to God for approval, I looked to my mom. …I didn’t have a personal relationship with Christ – until she died. I finally turned to Him.
I suffered many consequences of the choices I’d made, but crying to God in the shower one night, I realized… WHOA! I had never asked GOD how He wanted me to live! I had such little knowledge of the Bible, but He changed my heart that moment and I began to seek His will…
I am Redeemed, Restored & Forgiven!!
…and, April, you are a precious witness of His love and grace to everyone who is fortunate enough to know you ~ I praise God for your sweet friendship!
Although I was raised in the church, I did not have a relationship with God. I always felt when I was “good enough” then He would have a relationship to me. Until then, I was unknown, just one of the herd. In 2000 I was started going a horrendous period bi-polar depression that wouldn’t let up. By the time 2004 rolled around, I had given up hope–hope of things being different, hope of God ever knowing my name. The loss of hope was too much to bear. No one was benefiting from my existence, so why not relieve everyone of the burden? That is just what I proceeded to do on an early spring day in 2004.
The river that I grew up on is a part of my soul. So it is there I went with plans of not returning. I would perch myself precariously over the river, slice into my arms, and somewhere between drunkenness and blood loss I would fall into the river below. I executed my plan. But God had other plans for me. It was during this time, with blood running down my arms, that I heard the voice of God truly speak to me for the first time. He said, “Child of mine, your timeline is not for you to decide.”
Since then I have been rejoicing that God knows my name! I have been teaching to other women that God knows your name and is involved in the details of your life!
My young, single mother deposited me at my grandmother’s house as a baby and ran off to a life of her own, only to return years later to take me away from the only parents I had ever known and into years of neglect and abuse. I remember vividly being in Sunday school class learning about Job. I jumped up and down in the middle of the circle and said exuberantly, “They can’t kill me.” I was a little girl shouting Hallelujah because if Job was not allowed to be killed, neither would I. No matter what happened to me from that point forward, I knew that the Lord would somehow protect me. I knew that I would grow up to have children and raise them with love and compassion, which I have done. I believe that when I was about to be born, our Father looked ahead at my life and knew that there were many hardships to come and, given our free will in life, He could not stop them. Yet I believe he held me very close and whispered in my ear that He was there, He would never leave me, and I would rise above it all. Life has been hard, but I have a wonderful husband of 30+ years, four beautiful children and children-in-law, grandchildren, and when I close my eyes, I can still hear that same still whisper that has gotten me through the hardships and will someday take me to my heavenly home.
My name is Joann. I am a 44yr old mother of three kids and a wife to a wonderful man. For the last 11 yrs I have been fighting aggressive breast cancer. It has moved to my lungs a few months ago. I’ve had four recurrences and was not expected to make it a few yrs ago. The Lord has done amazing things through my illness. i am learning to rely on Him more everyday. He has done so many neat things that He really didn’t need to do to show me He was there. I am frightened, but every morning He puts His name on my lips and shows me a scripture. He has surrounded me with wonderful, Godly friends and has blessed my husband and I. All three kids have given their lives toChrist and have also been baptized. I am blessed to see that. I don’t know what He has in store for me. i am receiving my fifth round of chemo and it is tough, but I know He walks this road with me . I write my blog because I am hoping He will use me to help other women going through trials of their own. Well, that’s my story. Thanks for this opportunity
Joann, Saying a prayer of healing for you today. Thank you for sharing your testimony.
There’s a God in Heaven and He loves me.
For years I lived an ordinary christian life thinking I was living how God desired–reading my Bible, praying daily, but inside my soul, I was not satisfied. I was held captive by “churchianity” and knowing this couldn’t be the abundant life Christ described in the New Testament. By God’s grace there came a time in my life when “things fell apart.” It was then I knew the choice was mine–better or bitter. This is where and when my journey to true freedom in Christ began. Learning to live in the wealth of the Holy Spirit as my leader, counselor, and constant friend, my life is not easy, but satisfied–content. Am I perfect? Yes and no. Yes, in that, in God’s eyes I am b/c He sees only the perfection that Jesus’ saving grace has lavished upon me. No, b/c I live in a fallen imperfect world and there are days, moments, seconds that I choose to “walk” in my own strength. But, He always calls me back–back to the place of intimacy with Him where grace and forgiveness abound. I was a walking example of a christian bound by “churchianity” captivity. But, though I once was lost; I’ve been found and set free. That freedom is making all the difference in me. So, when I sound like an “over-the-top” christian, it’s b/c I’m head over heels in love with the creator of the Universe. You want to know the really neat thing? He’s in love with me. This is life as God meant it to be. “For you will seek me and find me when you SEEK ME WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART; I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU (there’s your guarantee) and BRING YOU BACK FROM CAPTIVITY.” This is where extraordinary christian living begins……………………………….
From the outside we were the perfect family. But in reality, my mother was bi-polar and my father was determined to beat it out of her. His father had taught him lessons on how to use your fist to control your family. The violence echoed off the walls of our house. After 20 years of marriage, he simply gave up and abandoned the family. My mother’s mental health spiraled into emotional rages. Her abuse now matched my Dad’s with me buying Satan’s line that this was normal family life. As I left home and married a handsome Naval Officer, God had plans. When we visited my Mom for Christmas when my first son was 14 months old, my mother tried numerous times to kill him. In her delusional mind, he was only to grow up to be another man to hurt women. But God put a shield of protection around my son and me that night. God looked at my family lineage and simply said, “No more!” He opened my eyes to see truth instead of Satan’s lies. It put up a boundary of protection from all the family lineage of violence. Walking in His truth I was free! We raised our three sons in a peaceful loving home. My Dad or Mom could have killed me but God had plans for my boys. It was worth every tear but I can say, by God’s grace, we do not have to be what we come from. I am living proof.
I grew up in a loving, Christian family and was saved at the age of five. By the time I was eighteen, I had lost my older sister to cystic fibrosis, had attended all four of my grandparent’s funerals, and watched as my brother went off to war. I no longer could feel any attachment to my own feelings. My emotions were just numb. I had no more tears to cry and no more heart to break. While I still had this mind set, I met an older, married man who took an interest in me. He was controlling, manipulating, and abusive to me in so many ways. He isolated me from my family and friends. He pressured me to have sex with him which later let to a pregnancy. Against everything I believed in, I had an abortion. I finally broke free from this man in August 2010.
My parents rejoiced when I came back home to them. We were able to rebuild our relationship again. However, I still kept my abortion a secret from my family. The Holy Spirit was weighing heavy on my heart to tell my parents of my abortion. Telling my parents was extremely hard, but it was the first step to healing. The Lord has showered me with His grace and provided me with complete healing. I have now surrendered my entire life to Him. The Lord has been able to use me in helping others from the shame of their sins.
I much prefer story of Grace when I talk about my salvation story. In The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 7, there is a story of a woman, who loved much because she had been forgiven much. My story is like that. Born into poverty, brokenness, addiction, and immorality, I had no hope that one day, I would be called by God into a relationship with Him. It wasn’t even on my radar screen. Yet here I sit, writing out the LIVING PROOF, that God REDEEMS WHAT LOOKS UNREDEEMABLE! In the story that I’m about to tell is summed up in Romans 8:28; And we KNOW that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. God started His redemptive work in me long before the day He saved me on November 1st of 1999. I woke up that morning a broken mess of a 20 year old girl. Deep into alcoholism, drug addiction, and premarital sex, I looked out of the balcony window of my ex-boyfriends apartment and told myself to just jump. That life was hopeless, that God surely couldn’t exist and that if He did exist He would have no use for a worthless alcoholic like me and to end it all right there. End the pain and the deep chasm of darkness that I had fallen so very far into. Yet He chose, that very moment, at my absolute worst and when I could offer Him nothing, no regular church attendance, no good girl putting on a face, nothing for Him to want to choose me and yet that’s exactly what He did, He saved me. He spoke and said don’t jump (not in that audible way, but in my spirit) and said call your sister instead (who had been sober for 6 months in AA) and if you believe in Me, I have so much more for your life than this. So I did, I trusted Him for the first time and I called my sister and entered a rehab center for women called The Magdalene House and on that warm November day in 1999 God rescued me from the grips of Satan and death and I have been sober ever since and in a beautiful love relationship with Him. Praise GOD! So when I say it is for Grace that I have been saved through faith-and this is NOT from me, but was strictly and wholly a gift from Him and I can boast in nothing but Christ, (Eph. 2:8-9) trust me I MEAN IT! I knew I was nothing, actually if there was worse than nothing, THAT’S what I was. I was a dead women walking around in a body that was someone still breathing. And this life that we have been called to, that Jesus said would be ABUNDANT, He wasn’t joking. That’s the amazing thing about unfaithfulness to the Truth of the Word, is that the abundance we seek in sin, leads to utter destruction yet Jesus brings life and fulfillment and joy like NO physical high I ever experienced by putting a substance in my body. I was baptized 10 months later in August of 2000, in my Pastor’s hot tub, and I emerged from that water a FREE woman. I remember it like it was yesterday and as I write this down this very instance, I have tears streaming down my face thinking about my very first love, My Jesus, the first one who told me He loved me and I believed it with all my heart. GOD WILL RESTORE THE YEARS THE LOCUS HAVE EATEN AWAY! Has HE EVER!!
After getting married in 2009, my wonderful husband and I decided to start trying to have a family about 6 months later. I had always heard stories about people who had to wait a long time to have children, but I just always hoped that would never be me. Fast Forward a year and a half to the summer of 2011. No children. At this point, we decided to go in for testing. All of the tests came back great, except that my body does not always ovulate on its own. Two months after going on ovulation medication, we were elated to find out we were expecting. One week later, we found out the baby was in glory. I have never felt such grief or loss in my entire life. In one short week, we went from an amazing high to a devastating low. Three months after that in February of 2012, we found out we were expecting again. A few weeks later, I went in for an early ultrasound, and there was no baby. After a lot of tests, we found out I was going through an ectopic pregnancy (in the tubes). Thankfully, it was caught early which helped in the healing process tremendously. A few months later now, I look back at the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain and grief, my husband and I both endured, and I can’t imagine going through any of this without my Jesus. Your story may look a little different than my story, but we are all human. We all experience pain, loss, grief, and heartache. The amazing thing is we have a wonderful Savior who has promised to never leave us, but instead to carry us through our grief to the next step of our journey. We continue to cling to him and his promises for our future and that healthy baby we so desire.
I too was raised in a loving Christian family and had been taught the ways of a Christian life. At the age of 50 I found myself desperately needing both knees replaced. However, according to most experts I was too young for such an operation. I suffered about 6 years seeing many doctors and finally I found a doctor who agreed to replace both my knees. I was very grateful and was happily preparing for the surgery. In December 2002 my knee doctor gave me a list of items that had to be completed before I could have my surgery and one of those items was a mammogram. Since I had a mammogram in August 2002 I informed the doctor that I did not need another mammogram and he informed me that I would not get my knees replaced until everything on the list was completed. So, I had another mammogram in January 2003. Much to my surprise after many, many tests and several doctors I was told I had breast cancer. Me breast cancer– and not only that but it was the fastest growing cancer that you can have. So, if I had waited until my yearly mammogram in August of 2003 the cancer could have been in my lymph nodes or spread in other places in my body.
The Lord saved my life twice that year — two new knees and early detection of the breast cancer. I am alive and well today because my Lord and Savior had a plan for my life, one that I was totally unaware of – but happy to say that I know “my redeemer lives”.
Judy Baggett
Irving, Texas
The past several years have been quite the roller coaster for our family. My husband has been through three job losses, and had finally gotten a new job 9 hours away. We had our house on the market for months. There were several prospects for house sales but things always fell through with financing. It was the middle of summer and we needed to get moved so our youngest son could start school in August. Then things got even more stressful when we had both of our vehicles breaking down in one day, and our other son received a letter stating he had no University housing available for college. Later that week at women’s Bible Study my friends decided they would come and pray over the house for a sale and provision. It was a very powerful prayer time.
The next day we received another offer on the house, and it was insultingly low and we didn’t even counter it. At that point we decided to rent the house if possible to a young couple who we’ve known from church. Her father was our pastor when we moved there 8 years ago. They were expecting another baby and needed to move from their small apartment. Our plan was to take whatever they could afford for rent, so our house would be well cared for. The husband is a Pastor at another church.
The next day one of my friends who had come to pray over the house called and wanted to know if they could come back over, they had something they needed to tell me. That morning while going over my Scripture Memory Verses I had read the one from Ephesians 3:20 that says “God can do anything you know, far more than you can ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” and I said back to God, “I don’t know God, I have a pretty good imagination, and I can imagine someone buying our house for cash!” What my friends came to say was the most amazing conversation imaginable. Someone, who wants to remain anonymous, felt God telling them to give a tithe from the proceeds for a property they were selling, to us!!
They would buy our house for full price, but they didn’t want the house, they felt the house should be used for God, and we would have to decide how that would happen. As soon as they said this, I knew that God was telling me to give the house to the couple we wanted to rent to! There would be money enough to buy new cars and pay off all our credit card debt and still have money for our son’s college apartment expenses, etc. As this started to sink in we realized that we could also fix the old van and give it to our friends, a Pastor and his wife who are planting a church in San Antonio and needed a second vehicle. We moved a week before our son needed to start school. God provided a beautiful rental home for us, in a nice area.
God did more than we could ever imagine and we are still living in amazement of His love and provision as we trust in Him! I know this was a long story, but we want to give God all the glory for all our blessings!!