My Story

Merry Christmas!

Throughout my life I have been up. I have been down. I have laughed. I have cried. I have been poor. I have been rich. I have been well. I have been sick. I have served God. And yes, I have served myself. But through it all I have learned I can depend on God. He is always faithful and always forgiving. And His Word is trustworthy and true. God is as good as His Word.

The following is the best story of my life. It is when I began learning  great truths about God. It is how I came to know the ultimate truth of God, His Son Jesus Christ.

When I was growing up every day had its job. Monday was wash day, Tuesday was ironing day, Wednesday or Thursday was shopping day, Friday was cleaning day, Saturday was baking day, and Sunday was church day.

Sundays were the highlight of our week. You could count on it. If it was Sunday we were in church. Even after I got married and worked full-time, Sunday was still church day.

Along with going to church I did a lot of church-things. I was a Sunday school teacher, a choir member and a small group member. I also read my Bible and learned how to share the faith.

One evening when I was a young mother I was reading my Bible. It dawned on me that in spite of all the church-things I had done I was failing God. I may sound OK to you. I may looked OK to others. But it’s what God thinks that really matters. The Bible told me: “[You are] infected and impure with sin, when [you] display [your] righteous deeds; they are nothing but filthy rags.”

I personalized this verse because for the first time I thought about sin in a personal way. I had done many good things but the bad things, such as impatience, anger, and self-centeredness, polluted the good I was doing. I fell asleep that night with tears in my eyes.

What I remember about the next morning are impressions. God and I had a conversation, so to speak, that changed my life forever. I remember thinking about Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and how Peter resisted, “Lord, not only my feet but my hands and my head also!” I thought the same as Peter. Wash all of me. I was that dirty. Yet at the same time I was deeply loved by God and brand new inside. I had been born again.

It was later on that I realized that I had been a church member for 15 years! What would my friends think? When I told my husband, he tried to talk me out of it. After all, he had become a Christian because of me! But truly I was different. Something had happened to me. My heart was full of joy.

One of my favorite songs is “Blessed Assurance” because it tells what happened to this church lady.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the daylong;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the daylong.

The question I will leave with you is this. What is your story?

P. S. This is not the end of my story. It was just the beginning. Many of the stories on this blog are about what has happened since. Click on the category “My Story” to read more.

 

End Notes:
Through it All sung by Andrea Crouch
“God is as good as His Word” quote from Bible teacher Martha Evoy
Isaiah 64:6 (NLT)
John 13:5-10
Blessed Assurance by Fanny J. Crosby, Public Domain

© 2019 Lena Rae