Even when I was 4 or 5 years old I had a very simple, childlike faith in Jesus Christ. My mum had been to a missionary prayer meeting and when she got home she came up to my room and told me a story about a missionary child who got lost in a jungle where there were wild animals. The missionary child prayed and asked God to protect her and look after her.
My mum said that I too could ask God to come into my life and he would watch over me and protect me. So I asked Christ into my heart at my bedside. I prayed a simple prayer:
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.
Come in today; come in to stay;
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus!
It was a childlike faith but somehow it kept me close to God. I attended my mum and dad’s church and Sunday school until I was eleven. But there were no other young people there and I felt there was nowhere interesting for me to go.
I stopped going to church for a while but after a short time God saw to it that a leaflet was put through our door. It was advertising Greenisland Baptist Church, a new church that had just started up in the area. I went by myself and have never looked back.
I found Bible teaching I could understand and good Christian friends to talk to about my faith in Jesus Christ. I started to take my faith even more seriously when I was about 14 and was baptised.
Everyone has to deal with issues in their lives and God is the only person that truly understands and can help you through them. If I didn’t have my faith in the Lord Jesus, I don’t think I would have made it through a lot of what I have come up against as a teenager.
I am willing to follow the Lord wherever he wants me to go. Recently I have had the opportunity to go to Kenya and Ukraine to help in the Lord’s work for a while.
I sometimes struggle with my faith but God gets me through. The two things that are good to remember are FROG (fully rely on God) and PUSH (pray until something happens).
I pray that if you are struggling you too will turn to the Lord. Just as he is my comfort and strength, he can be yours as well
