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NEEDHIM
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Trusting
in Christ
by Michael Stevens
Prior to trusting in Christ, my purpose
in life centered around self-satisfaction and an ever-increasing frustration
of not being able to attain a purpose, whether it was with the relationship
with my wife and family, my career, or the regret of a poor decision of
educational training. In the course of fifty-two years which encompassed
several life settings, I had experienced pretty much all life had to offer
(at least I thought I had). I was fortunate to have a “normal”, loving
family growing up in the 1960’s where I was a very passive attender of
a Methodist church. God had to do with religion and religion was
a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Upon entering college (in the
60’s), I even questioned the existence of God. It was “the thing
to do” in those days!
After college as a young adult and entering
my first marriage, God was nowhere to be found in my life. Little
did I know that God loves everyone, and His love for me was abundant and
included the gift of my son who, at that time of my life, was the only
true love I had ever experienced. After thirteen years, my marriage
ended in divorce and started my life on a roller coaster journey, which
had some very enjoyable highs, but for the most part, some very dark lows.
I then met and promptly married my wife, Leah, but for all the wrong reasons!
With an age difference of twenty-seven years, one can easily use his most
vivid imagination and come up with all the wrong reasons. A predictable
decline in infatuation occurred for both of us, and we were faced with
life’s realities, one person who was committed only to himself and didn’t
have the slightest desire to know Christ, and another person who knew Christ
but had gone astray and was in desperate need to recommit her life to Him.
On October 28, 1998, our beautiful daughter,
Taylor, was born. It was actually God’s third attempt in providing
a gift of such magnitude that it would keep the two of us together until
I would be able to be led to Christ. We had already all but destroyed
one another as well as our older daughter, Whitney, who was witness to
some of the worst marital fighting in history! In short, Leah and
I inflected unbearable pain on each other and Whitney for roughly five
years. The mutual love that each of us shared for Taylor kept us
together. However, the fighting continued and I could no longer go
on. On March 26, 1999, Lionel Young, Leah’s father, convinced me
that before I did anything, I needed a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ, and he lead me to the Lord.
I can’t quite remember all my thoughts and
feelings on that particular day that I trusted in the Lord. I know
that it was more of a process over the next few months that I experienced
the joy of the realization of God’s grace and His forgiveness of my sins
through His Son’s blood that was the one and only reason that I will have
an eternal relationship with God. I was free of sin’s dominion and
I could now put all my faith in the Lord! My new “born again” identity
has afforded me the comfort of peace through His forgiveness of sins.
My life now is far from perfect, but with a renewed love for my wife through
God and actually seeing Him work in our lives, I am now at peace, and I
am able to treat life’s complexities as they are required to be treated,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Michael Stevens
Texas
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