LOVED from before birth
There is a verse in the Bible in which King David celebrates God’s care for him, while he was a baby growing in his mother’s womb.
He says, ‘Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them’ (Psalm 139:16).
In the same way, even before I was born, the Lord was watching over and preparing my path in life.
When two weeks old, I was adopted by my family; at that time, there were no Christians in it. When three, I was taken into a Romanian Brethren church by my (adopting) mother for the first time. And, from that point, our life would be changed in ways we never expected.
My mother was the first to receive the Lord into her heart; and in our home her life has since been a testimony to God’s grace and love.
Personal salvation
For some years, I attended church with her. I liked the hymns very much. I made real friends there and went to many Christian gatherings and evangelistic occasions. I sensed greater peace in my heart and soul. Yet still I sometimes felt something was missing in my life.
It was not hard to talk about God and I enjoyed religious education classes at school. I knew more about God than my fellow pupils. But when the subject of personally being saved from sin and knowing Jesus Christ came up, I would suddenly feel very small. And if someone had asked me: ‘Are you saved?’ I wouldn’t have known what to say.
In summer 2003, I went to a Christian young people’s camp in Romania and met many other youngsters like me. Many of them had the answer to the question I was always avoiding.
That time at camp became days when the Lord showed me wonderful things in my own experience — what it meant to become his servant, to be inwardly changed by his grace and to be saved from sin.
There too I saw how the lives of other young people are being changed and how God through his Son, Jesus Christ, does everything in a definite way, with a definite purpose, and especially at the right time.
Young people who previously had been atheists were saying to the Lord, ‘Thank you, God, for saving me’.
Prayer alone
At first I was embarrassed, because I knew I still did not have the same assurance in my heart. I felt very lonely. So I went somewhere quiet and prayed with a friend that I might be given the same certainty of salvation.
I thanked the Lord Jesus that he died for me and paid the price for my sins, and I invited him to live in my heart.
I came back home from that camp with joy, and those around me noticed the change in me. I prayed for my father and the Lord gave us the answer in making him a true Christian too. Now we are a united family in the Lord.
I thank the Lord that he has chosen me out of the world to be his child and that he works so beautifully for each and every one of us who trusts in him.
Ana-Maria Mustatea
