Finding God

How I Found God

Here’s an even better way to put it: how I discovered that God had chosen me.

This post comes from my heart.

It’s an open window into life-changing events that led me to Christ and the knowledge that He chose me for His own.

If someone is telling you that God doesn’t exist or that He doesn’t care about you, don’t believe it for a second. Those are lost people and they’re not trying to help anyone.

As a Christian, I want to share my testimony (as do my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ) because I (we) do care. We’re not trying to force anything on anyone, but we do stand up for our beliefs. We’re not perfect, never claim to be, nor do we have easy lives. Far from it. Christians need the Cross and the saving grace of Jesus Christ just as much as anyone else does.

We want to reach out to the lost. We want to tell the world that, despite the liberal, anti-God sentiments, permeating in current events, in our schools and universities, and in the public square (at an alarming rate), there is good news.

Have you heard about it yet?

Desperately Seeking

God has given us so much. Have you looked lately at how beautiful His creation is? And yet, some people want to claim all of this just popped up out of nowhere. Poof!

The fact is, there’s no building without a designer or plans. How much more so our universe that the Master Designer created for us as His Divine Plan.

There are volumes of research about the existence of God, books and scholarly commentaries to help you through every chapter of the Bible, plus the Bible-believing (and teaching) churches and fellowships that are everywhere – all readily available so that no one has an excuse.

My life has changed, thanks to the saving grace of my Lord Jesus Christ.

Distractions and Confusing Signals

I’m grateful to God because, looking back, He has had a lot of patience with me. Like everyone else, I’m a sinner. There are consequences for sin even though people don’t want to talk about that in our current cultural climate. There are so many worldly distractions and pressures to take our minds off God, and for too many years, praising God took a backseat in my life.

It wasn’t anything that I ever meant to happen, it’s just that the “disconnect” started for me as a child. As I grew up and asked more questions, I felt disillusioned with everything that had been taught to me about God in school and everywhere else. It seemed, at the time, like God was in Heaven somewhere and was too busy to really know or care about me.

Don’t Ever Feel Guilty About Asking Questions

Asking questions is in my blood. Maybe that’s why I became a television reporter at one time during my life. I continued to ask questions, all the way through college, but the answers made no sense. I figured God was working on the big stuff, like wars and famine.  It’s no wonder I felt the disconnect.

At that time, there was no “Blessed Assurance”. The prayers I was taught as a child became just words that were memorized. They were heartfelt, but that’s all most of them were, just “words.”

There is but one God.  He is the only One we should ever pray to.  Anything else is idolatry, according to the Word of God. That’s pretty clear and simple.

Running On Empty

Continuing to look back, by the time I got to college, attending church was completely on the back burner. I was a “good person” and I believed in God so I figured that’s all I needed to know to get to Heaven. I held on to the thoughts that, as long as I didn’t do anything to hurt anyone, said the same prayers before bed, and confessed my sins, I could just move on through life and get my free pass to the pearly gates.

As happy a person as I was growing up, I was running on empty. I just didn’t know it yet.

Bad Things Happen To Good People

God providentially allowed three major spiritual markers in my life to get my attention. Many little ones too, but at the risk of this being too long, I will focus on the big ones. I thank Him that, even after that sometimes painful journey, I got the message, took off my blinders, and got on the road to finding Him.

The first major, devastating, wake-up call was when my father was diagnosed with Alzheimers. Dad and I were always close and it killed me to see his health decline to an extent where he was just a shell of the man he once was. I have many painful memories – when he was told he could no longer drive, his forgetfulness, his night terrors, and many more. I was working as a TV reporter in Louisiana at the time. One thing became painfully clear, my mother was not able to care for Dad by herself at our home in Florida.

For a very long time, I made that drive home every weekend from Lafayette to Pensacola to be with my Dad. For three and a half hours on the road every Friday night, I was alone with my thoughts headed towards home and desperately trying to figure out why Dad had to spend his remaining years with this horrible disease. There was nothing I could do to stop it. It was emotional and draining.

Even though I had the best, most demanding, job I’ve ever had, my heart was no longer in it. I lost my focus – not a good thing when you’re responsible for delivering the news on air every night. I decided to quit and to move home to help take care of Dad. Moving home was the right thing to do. Difficult circumstances really piled up that year and made that time at home even more painful.

Headed The Wrong Way

Unfortunately, in my quest to make sense of it all, I got into some mumbo-jumbo new age kind of nonsense. I was so sad about my father that I ended up buying a stupid book hawked by a so-called “spiritual” celebrity. It was popular at the time, but shall remain nameless here because I refuse to lead anyone down that misguided path. Fortunately for me, that stage didn’t last too long and I was happy to later throw that book in the trash.

I’ll never forget when my father passed away. It was an emotional time. I’d seen him in bed suffering and moaning. While I will never forget him, I knew that once he passed away he would finally be at peace.

Meeting Mr. Right

My husband was a Christian from a different denomination. There were several key differences between our faiths, but we both agreed that God would be the foundation of our relationship.

We fell in love and went through the same struggles that all couples do. God was always the center of our relationship and we never lost faith in Him. We started to attend church together. I was excited to finally get to learn more about the Bible I’d heard so much about. Once I started learning more about God and His great love for us and that He knew my name personally, my thirst for biblical knowledge went through the roof!

Things started falling into place and making sense, although life wasn’t perfect.

Up’s, Then Down’s

The second spiritual marker came as a complete shock. As can happen in life, it wasn’t long before I was dealt another blow…the loss of another dear one in my life.

Several years ago, I was at home and got one of the worst phone calls of my life. My best friend in the world from the tv station was killed in a car accident. He was a little older than me and had a wife and two young kids. The sadness of it all just broke my heart. I was devastated.

Why, God, why? It was hard to come to grips with the news. Another wonderful person in my life was taken from me. Why do bad things happen to good people like Steve?

Why would a good God allow so much suffering in the world? I earnestly sought answers and what I found was perspective – at church, from Bible-believing pastors, from my own research and that of others.

How could anyone go through life and not seek this kind of closure? I did and am so grateful for the journey.

By the way, there are a lot more online resources available to you these days. In your own research, I can also recommend these you, to name just a couple:

– answers in genesis
– gotquestions.org
– oneplaceministries.

There are MANY more resources.

You have a choice. You can ignore the Light in this increasingly dark world or you can embrace the Light and seek the One who gave you life and knew you before you were born.

The Accident That Changed My Life

The third major spiritual marker came during a family accident near Jackson Hole. One of the saddest times in my life and yet God’s fingerprints of grace were all over that fateful day.

The good news for all of us? Heaven is very, very real. There will always be scoffers and mockers of the Bible and of Christians. Even during the most painful time of Jesus’ life, He prayed for His enemies. We must do that. There will be people who will mislabel us as haters or any name they can think of.

Why? Because we believe in what God says? It’s not about hate at all. The Bible is convicting and that’s why people who don’t want any moral guideline for their lives reject it.

True Christians know that sufferings and persecutions will come and get worse. There’s no free pass, as I said earlier.

As a former TV reporter, I don’t just accept things at face value. I have to listen, reflect, ask questions, study and ponder.

My life has been transformed after knowing Jesus Christ as Savior. His Word has “fallen into place in my heart”. To know that prophesies in the Bible are true and falling into their historical place in time, is to rest in His assurance to “Be Still and Know that I am God.”

The prophesy that remains to occur is the rapture of the church and, gloriously, it is coming one day. No one knows the day or the hour. God doesn’t want us to stress about it. All we can do in the meantime is to praise God our Father, pray for the lost, read our bibles, support each other, and turn complete control of our lives over to Him. He cares about us.

A Thirst for Learning

I couldn’t believe how much there was for me to learn (and still learn). That nagging emptiness I had for years was finally being filled.

As I continue to read and learn about the Bible, I fall more in love with Him every day. Even the book of Revelation, which was once a complete mystery to me, now makes a lot more sense. Finally! Praise God!

The Light switched on and I will never go back. I got to know Him! The beautiful words of the praise songs we sing in church speak to me. His tender mercies and grace are what sustain me during the sad times, knowing that He hears “every tear that falls.” Wow! He was there in those sad places, in those moments, and every moment since.

Did my life as a Christian suddenly change and become better? No. God never promised us that. Life was and continues at times to be a struggle. Regardless, I have God and my faith to carry me through. Believe in God and you will have a better perspective on everything, focused on things above.

Praying For The Lost

The “but I’m a good person” argument doesn’t save a person from anything. I used to say it myself, but I know now those are just empty words. God sent Jesus to us as a God-man to bear our sins so that we could be redeemed from our wickedness. It doesn’t matter how “good” or nice you are. Repentance and God’s grace are what saves.

Life doesn’t end well for unbelievers. Atheists may feel it’s “party time” right now. However, a big wake up call is in their future. I urge you to pray for them too. There’s still time for them to receive God’s gift of salvation.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)

Finding God

There is deliverance for all who seek Him. There is forgiveness offered from our righteous God and there is salvation through the Cross. No matter what you or I have done in our past, if we accept His Truth into our hearts, sincerely seek His forgiveness, repent from our sins and embrace His Word in the Bible, He will redeem us.

The Bible is God’s love story to us. His Word has survived the test of time. He will always be victorious.

Blessings To You

In closing, God bless you all who are reading this. I praise God that you have taken the time to read my story and testimony. I pray that God will reveal His many blessings to you and that you and I will meet in Heaven one day.

If you’d like to read some great commentaries about Heaven, I can recommend the writings of Randy Alcorn, for one. Remember, the resources and the support is there from Bible-believing Christians, you just need to seek them out.

Please remember:

You are loved and cared for by the One who created you out of nothing.

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