When I was little I used to go to church but with no interest in or understanding of God. I’d use it as an excuse to play with my friends. When I was old enough make up my own mind, I chose not to go.
Throughout my teens and in to my 20’s let’s just say I became streetwise. The lifestyle that this generation enjoy is one of escapism; drink, drugs, smoking and sex. Because it was what everyone else was doing I just saw it as normal and had no conviction in my heart that it was wrong.
I worked in nightclubs as a dancer and at the time the job was great. It was like going out and getting paid for it. After years of living this lifestyle however, it started to take its toll. The highs were beginning to be overtaken by the lows and I hated the way I was living but felt trapped.
I prayed and prayed but at first there was no change. I felt stuck in a rut.
The thing I’ve learnt about God is that He answers our prayers in His time and His way. He can’t free us from everything at once. He does it slowly and subtly, gradually transforming our hearts and minds and illuminating the truth.
Even when we are still continuing to fall in a certain area He is teaching us. People point the finger too often and say “He or She is supposed to be a Christian and they are doing such and such”.
However what we have to remember is that nobody is perfect and we are all work in progress. We are all on a unique journey and have individual baggage content that needs fixing. Only God can fix us. He does when we ask Him, but in His time.
One New Year the desire to live the lifestyle I was living left me. It was like it had been taken off me. Instead of dancing in clubs I was offered a job teaching dance, something I didn’t think I was capable of. I am still teaching and I love it.
That’s not to say that it has been easy and that I haven’t fallen since, or to say that there isn’t other things that I am struggling with. But I look back at where I was, and look at where I am now and think... there is absolutely NO way that I could have broken free from all that I was doing in my own strength.
I have a renewed strength, a renewed understanding of my old lifestyle’s destructiveness and most importantly a renewed faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour, Healer and Redeemer.
Check ~ Jesus Reigns
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