Growingup I always felt like I had a normal life. I was happy, active and loved school. However, growing up I always felt like there was something missing. I felt a void in myself. When I got to high school, I started hanging out with the wrong group of friends and started using drugs. I used off and on until I graduated high school. When I graduated I got clean, went to college, and held a part time job for about six months. Then one day some old friends asked me to come over for a party and I did. That night I started using meth again. This time it got a hold of me. From there on things just progressively got worse. After that my life became this vicious cycle of using drugs, jail, and going to programs that were not helping me. I wanted to get my life in order but just didn’t know how. I thought I could do it all on my own. Finally, the last time I got put in jail I called my dad and asked him to come get me. He told me that he couldn’t watch me kill myself and that he was not coming to get me unless I would commit to going to a program. He also told me that I needed to start reading my Bible. Well that night I opened my Bible and the first thing I read was Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Right then I started praying that God would send me to a place that would work so I could get clean. Within about three days after that I was on my way to a Christian Program. It took my dad three days to get paper work done that normally takes people three weeks to finish. So I know God was there from the start. After two weeks in the program I rededicated my life to the Lord and got water baptized. From then on God continually worked in my life. I realized the whole time the void I was missing in my life was Jesus. I found that God gave me the strength to overcome my addiction. He healed my relationship with my family and sent me new friends. The whole time I was using and wanting to get clean the one thing I truly needed was a relationship with the Lord. Through the Bible study, Christian recovery work books and counseling I learned that I do not have to fit in. I know and believe now that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Now I have been clean for three years, I have a beautiful baby boy, and I am attending college to become a Certified Medical Assistant. Also, I am working as the Intake Coordinator in a center just like the one that I graduated from. It is such a blessing to work in a center where you see lives change daily. I am able to witness firsthand the healing and saving power of Jesus Christ.
I am 30 years old. I am married and have a 9 year old son. I was addicted to crack cocaine. It started when I was about 15 years old and I started getting involved with the wrong crowd at school. It started with marijuana and alcohol, but it was only a couple of years before I started with cocaine then crack. It is a devil’s world out there, But because of God’s grace and mercy he put someone in my life that was willing to help me. That’s how I got into a Christ Centered program fourteen months ago. Since being in the program I have learned how to have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. I never knew just how happy and full of joy I could be with Jesus in my heart. The program taught me the truth of the word, how to live a Christian life and how to draw on the Lord’s strength in life’s ups and downs. The verse that I stand on is 2 Samuel 22:17-20.
“He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me
Growing up in Nebraska, I had a very normal, yet happy childhood. When I was in the fourth grade, my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer. In the next two years before his death, he underwent many physical changes and spiritual changes. He became something I had never heard of, a ”born-again Christian“. After his death in 1989, I went on with my life, never thinking that I would accept the faith he had accepted because I was so angry at this “God of his” for taking my dad away from me.
I was very active and happy in high school and college. I played sports, earned good grades and built strong relationships with friends. After graduating from college, I moved to Washington state. I followed my boyfriend there as he was in the Navy. For the next six years, I was miserable. Even though I had a good career in teaching English to high schoolers, I fell into a deep depression. I tried depression medications and counseling for many years. Nothing seemed to work. Eventually my boyfriend and I broke up. He moved to a different state, and I stayed in Washington hoping to reclaim my broken life.
After two years of living on my own, I was in an even deeper pit of depression. I was eating fast food all of the time, sleeping any chance I got, spending money I didn’t have, and hoarding clothes and trash.
One weekend I decided that my life on earth was worthless and hopeless. Besides, no one loved me, or so I thought. I told myself, “Just end it! It will be so much better if you’re not here causing all this pain!”
Thankfully, God’s hand was on me during the lowest moment of my life. I was prompted to contact a friend. She contacted my sister and told me to call my counselor. I did, and my counselor advised me to check myself into a hospital. So, a dear friend came with me and checked me into a hospital. I stayed there for 4 days. During that stay, my brother flew out to see me, and he told me about a program for women with life-controlling issues: Life Challenge.
I agreed to move to North Carolina and enter Life Challenge. Within the first four days at Life Challenge, I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and Savior.
Since accepting Christ, many blessings have poured into my life. My depression has lifted, my relationships with my family members have been healed, my anger over my dad’s death has dissolved, and my depleted self-worth has been restored and renewed. I am a new creation in Christ. It’s all because of Jesus I’m alive!
Ephesians 2: 4-5
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.”
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