Five years ago, I didn’t believe in Him.
I was living a privileged life. I was raised as an achiever and even studied in a well-known college school. I had a cool set of friends and a great family who spoiled me with almost everything I want. With these much on my plate, I saw no need and no interest in following God. I just knew He existed because He was brought up several times in the Christian school where I attended elementary.
During my second year in college, I became worried with how I’d been living my life for the past 18 years. It felt as if, no matter how much popularity I’ve gained and achievements I’ve unlocked, I never truly led a happy and fulfilling life. There’s still something that’s not in place. To add more frustration, I wasn’t even sure why I existed.
Being that messed-up teenager, I started indulging in parties and alcohol drinking for I thought that maybe this is what my life had been lacking all along. Maybe, this could bring the happiness and sense of completeness I was looking for.
But, it never did.
Then, in my last year in college, I was searching through my sister’s stuff and I happened to open her diary which contained her daily devotions. By some act of God, it was on the page where her prayers for me were written. For almost a year or two, my sister had been asking God if He can also let me experience the deep sense of joy and fulfillment brought by the faith journey she had gone through. Her simple prayers like “I finished my One2One today. I pray Ate will start hers soon!”, “I started leading a small group today. I pray my Ate will have hers soon!” and “The discipleship event was refreshing! I pray Ate will attend the next one, too!” moved me to surprise her in their Youth Service. I told myself that I’d attend “just this once”.
Then, “just this once” turned to weekly attendance.
With the help of my Victory group leader and the new friends I made in church, I began to understand and learn more about God and Jesus. I also realized that I had been given everything I could ever need, but I didn’t know how to use them wisely and I chose to live a life separate from Him. I had been wasting my time doing what I wanted to do in my life instead of what God wanted. I had been filling a God-sized hole with a substance that can never fill it.
But despite living my life the way I did, He still loved me.
And that love has changed my life.
I am not living for myself anymore, but for His glory and purposes.
He made my ultimate purpose clear to me and, that is simply to know Him and do His will.
In my first 2 years as a Christian, most of my sister’s prayers were answered – from going through the discipleship journey, to leading small groups and to attending discipleship classes/events. God even took me farther by sending me as a short-term missioner to bless the nation of Cambodia and by using me as His mouthpiece to preach the Gospel to a South Korean expat in a multinational company.
As of this writing, I am working as a college instructor, not just to transfer engineering-related knowledge, but also to profess the love of God to the students so they can experience the legacy of Jesus in their lives.
I am still well on my way today just because someone prayed for me.
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Hi there,
Thanks for being here! I’d love to know your Story, too.
Drop a message! =)
