Hi there! I’m Nadine and this is my testimony!
For those of you who know me, you know that I believe our testimonies are continuous! (Go read Philippians 1:6) But, I’ll take you through my past 22 years of life and how God radically changed my heart! Before we get into it, you should know that the only reason I am able to tell you about His work in my life is by His grace! In Romans, Paul told us that where sin increased, grace increased all the more and it couldn’t be more true! I had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home, so I was no stranger to Jesus, but He was a stranger to me. I’ll skip over the specifics, but after I was baptized in elementary school, life began to hit the fan so to speak. I started experiencing real trials and through those, I didn’t have a firm foundation with Jesus. I was trying to live half in the world, half out until eventually I was fully in the world. I didn’t believe that God was as good as I was told because I couldn’t understand how a good God could allow such a broken world. A big part of my story has to do with sexual sin. I’ve both willingly and unwillingly taken part in it, but this past summer, God gave me one of the biggest breakthroughs ever! I was still trying to live half in and half out of a life with sexual sin. I wasn’t in a healthy place and I listened to the lie that I knew more than the Bible did (W R O N G). July 4th weekend, my pastor preached about repentance and explained it in a way that finally clicked. I don’t know about you, but for a long time I thought that repentance was a word used by crazies with bells and signs on the streets. If you live near the Bible belt like I do, you’ll understand what I mean. This was the first time I understood it as asking God to destroy the sin that was keeping me from walking in the fullness of His love with fire. I used to think of holy fire in the same likeness as earthly fire. While it does destroy, it purifies those who want to be closer to God. I was living in fear over reverence. All that to say, I prayed that prayer half meaning it, not expecting God to move… That’s the thing about our prayers - God answers the ones that will honor Him, even when we don’t fully believe it at the time. That weekend, I got a text from a guy I was involved with and he told me that he downloaded Tinder, so he was breaking it off with me. For those of you who don’t know, Tinder’s logo is fire. I don’t know about you, but I think God has a sense of humor. It was then I fully surrendered my heart to God. He truly taught me that He can do so much more with a surrendered heart than He can with a stubborn one. It’s not that God won’t do it because who are we to put limits on Him, but He does give us the free will to choose Him. Since then, God has continued to move radically in my life. He’s blessed me with so much physically, but more than that, He’s been reshaping my belief about Him. He’s allowed me to see that He is truly good and fully loves me even when I stumble. He’s shown me that His love leaves room for grace and mercy. He’s shown me that we were meant to live this life together and that we can’t seek first the Kingdom if we don’t know the King. He allowed my sandy foundation to fall so He could rebuild on the Rock. (Go check out Matthew 7:24-27) I’m still learning and by no means am I someone that you should strive to be like. Instead, I’m going to encourage you to pray that God would realign your heart posture. One thing that’s been evident in my story is that God cares more about my heart posture than anything else. And I have to continually humble myself before Him so I can continue to walk along the path He has set before me. God has shown me that I can absolutely miss what He has for me, but by His grace, He’s protected me and provided a way back into His embrace. The same goes for you! No matter how far you’ve wandered, are wandering or will wander, God wants to embrace you with grace! - NK
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