We are filling out our adoption application and plan to submit it next week! Part of the application is that each of us have to share our personal testimony. Upon finishing mine today I thought it would be good to share it with you all too!
Rachel’s Testimony
I was raised in a Christian home. I am so blessed and thankful that my parents took me to church to fellowship with other believers and that they taught me the Bible from an early age. I remember always feeling a desire to be close to God and that I wanted to love and serve Him. I knew from church that people said you have to say a prayer and ask God to come into you heart in order to be saved. I wasn’t really sure what that all meant so I tried on several occasions to pray this “prayer” on my own but I didn’t ever feel any different. Around the age of 8 I remember feeling an urgency in my heart to really commit my life to God and mean it. The Holy Spirit was really calling me to come. Strangely enough, one day in my bathroom at home, I answered His call. I quieted myself and prayed that God would forgive me of my sins and save me. I felt different after that prayer. I wasn’t afraid anymore and I felt a peace in my life. I had an assurance that I belonged to God.
Around the age of 12, I began to understand more about my salvation. I came to realize the severity of my sin and that I desperately needed the work Jesus did on the cross so I would not be separated from God. I also began to understand that God had a plan and purpose for my life. I read my Bible and prayed daily for His direction. This was when I memorized Jer. 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” It became important to me that my life brought glory to God. Matt. 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” That meant I seriously needed to change some things in my life, like bad attitudes, disobedience, lying, laziness and so on. So, when I was 8 I repented from my sin and choose to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, thus I was justified, made right with God. Now, at age 12, the sanctification process, becoming more like Him, had begun.
I have always continued on this same path ever since. I have and always will seek and follow God’s direction for my life. I want to be a vessel He can use! My anthem in life is this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt. 22:37-39
LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS
