Testimony of Grace

I have been touched by God’s grace all my life. Grace is often defined as the unmerited favor of God; it is a gift that you can’t earn and don’t deserve. I didn’t know it at the time but I see it now in retrospect.

As a little girl, I was touched by things of nature: watching iridescent orange and pink sunsets and watching spring return every year with flowers blooming and trees budding with fresh, green leaves. Although I didn’t know God, I could see the things He made, and it reached down into my soul and stirred me to realize that God must be big and good and amazing. His grace was drawing me to Him. Jeremiah 31:3 expresses His love and care, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore, with lovingkindness, I have drawn you” (NKJV).

As a teenager, His grace gave me a desire for truth, and a conscience to realize that even though I had a very tender, empathetic heart, I still had sin and needed His grace. I wanted to know more and to learn about God. I was the only one in my family that went to church—a church that didn’t teach us to have a personal relationship with God. However, He was still drawing me to come to know Him through His grace.

When I turned twenty-two, I had been married about two years and was learning how to be a mother to a four-year-old stepson, had a new baby, was going to college full-time, and contracted “mono” (infectious mononucleosis). Everything came to a screeching halt. I was put on twenty-four-hour bed rest; I couldn’t even take care of my baby. I became depressed, and I was in a deep, dark, pit that I couldn’t climb out of. But through the darkness, I could see a small patch of light, but didn’t understand what it was. During that time of despair and discouragement, I called a friend who lived 2000 miles away in the middle of the night sobbing. I told her I didn’t know why I was calling her, and I told her about the pit and the light. She encouraged me to pray in my desperation. She sent a friend over the next day who read several scriptures to me:

Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (NKJV).

Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (NKJV).

Romans 10:9-10 “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation” (NKJV).

After reading the scriptures, she explained there is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God through a personal relationship with Christ. She asked me if I wanted to know God? I said yes!

She asked me to repeat a prayer with her out loud and from my heart. As I said that prayer, I experienced grace, (that favor that I could not do for myself). The patch of light that seemed far away was suddenly inside of me, filling my heart and mind with a presence of peace, love, and joy that I had never experienced before! I cried all day because His love was so strong, and He washed away fear, sadness, and my loneliness. That was a long time ago, but my life changed that day and it has never been the same! I don’t remember whether my physical body was healed that same day, but I don’t remember being sick after I prayed.

You can know the Father through faith in His Son Jesus, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, who reveals knowledge and the truth about Jesus, and comforts us. If you would like this relationship, I would ask you to repeat this prayer out loud:

Father God, thank you for loving me. Thank you for grace to hear about Jesus and that He died to take the punishment for my sin. I believe He lived a sinless life and His blood was shed to pay for my sins. I believe that His beaten body bore all my disease and sorrow so that I can be healed. I ask Jesus to be My Lord and My Savior. I thank You that my sins are now forgiven. I ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit to teach me about You and to lead me in all my decisions. I want to live for You and know You intimately. In Jesus’ Name, I pray.