I grew up in a wonderful Christian home and can remember even at a young age having a desire to know God. All through my youth I tried very hard to be a good Christian. I didn’t do drugs or any bad things that I was warned about… you would say that I was a good kid! Well even though on the outside people would have said that I was a good Christian girl, I never felt as though I was good enough. I would hear sermons or attend big seminars, and always feel that I was rather insignificant or that I was never spiritually good enough for God to really notice me or use me. I still had a desire to really know God, but struggled in Church for years to try and figure out what I had to do better for Him. As a young married woman, this desire to know God became even stronger and we found ourselves pulled into a very legalistic church. It sounded so good and they seemed to have the “secret” on how to know God. After 3 years of false teaching, I felt even more depressed and had an even greater feeling that I could never be good enough for God.

   At this point in our lives, a friend gave us some tapes on God’s Love, which opened up my husbands eyes to the truth of the Gospel. At first I was very skeptical and unsure of this new message. Even though I felt this way, I agreed to go with a group of friends to another town, to see the speakers from the tapes.

   I will never forget that first night at that Conference. I heard for the first time in my Christian life that God loved the world, and that he loved me, just the way I was… That he made me special, just me and that he loved me just the way I was. God loved me not because of who I am, but because of who He is! When that understanding of the truth about God’s love hit my heart, I felt like 300 pounds of guilt, and heaviness was lifted off my shoulders. It felt like bricks were being pulled out of the foundation of what I believed and my walls were starting to crumble. All those years of not understanding who God was and how much He loved me fell by the wayside and I started to receive His love for me.

   The word says that “the truth shall set you free”… well in my Christian life, I did not hear the truth till I was almost 30! At first I tried to fit this new understanding of how God viewed me and how much He loved me into all that I had learned in those first 30 years. After much frustration, I was able to lay it all at His feet and allow Him to re-teach me or repaint the image of who He was to me. The peace that I experienced was the kind of peace that the world does not understand. Once you receive His love, nothing or no one can ever take that away from you again. His Love sustains you through every moment of your life. When things are going well or when things in your life are falling apart, He will never leave you… He is there for you in all things.

   My life has never been the same since I truly discovered who God is and how much He loves me and I continue to grow in His love daily. Wow, is the only way to describe it. I hope as you have read this, it will encourage you on your journey to know God. His Love is the only power that will change your life. Let him love you today…

                                        In Christ
                                        Lorraine

 

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