When I was about six-years-old, I believed in God, and I remember praying to him, asking him to forgive me for the wrong things I was doing.
I wasn’t particularly naughty or rebellious by many peoples’ standards, but I was hiding it well! But I knew that those wrong things I was doing meant that I was sinning against God, and that because of that I was going to hell. It scared me!
Growing up as a teenager, I started to have serious doubts as to whether or not I really was a Christian. I had some big unanswered questions. For me, the problem was that God and the Bible didn’t seem to fit in with things I was being taught at school.
The turning point for me was that I started to understand what faith in God really was. ‘Faith’ can be such a confusing word. It’s not just saying or thinking things are true, but it’s actually believing them.
So, although not all my questions were answered straightaway, I slowly began believing and trusting in God and trying to follow him. From then on, I have been understanding things about God and about me through the Bible.
I’m still not quite sure exactly when I became a Christian, but what really matters is that I do believe in Jesus now. I do believe there is a problem in the world, and that problem is sin. I do believe that sin separated me from God. And I do believe that God has done something to bring me back to him: he sent Jesus to die on the cross to take the punishment for my sins.
All this means, I believe that one day I’ll go to heaven because of what Jesus has done for me. As I said, I’m not sure when I started believing this, but I know I believe it now. As a doctor, I have seen many people in difficult and tragic situations. I sometimes hear them ask big questions: ‘Why me? Why am I here? What’s the point of it all?’
As a Christian, the Bible tells me that we can have a reason for living, that God really does care about us, and we can have something so much better than this life can ever offer. When things get hard, I know that God is in control of everything and I really can trust him.
Siân Daniel
