FROM FEAR TO FAITH

by Brenda

I come from a family of mixed faith - my father is a Catholic and my mother is a Hindu. I was brought up as a Hindu. In my life I knew something was missing. I felt incomplete without it. I tried to fill that area with all the different deities, and there were times when I tried to communicate with them by calling them and even meditating.

All my attempts to communicate with God failed, and at the same time I was assailed with a growing fear This fear came out of nowhere, but it was making my life miserable and it grew out of proportions to phobia level. When I tried to study it took a long time to grasp what was in the book, since I was experiencing bouts of fear, and was always feeling a tension. My life was simply miserable and I had no control over the growing fear within me. I was fearful of the future and of many other things; I felt like some evil power was always hovering behind me.

About 10 years ago, one of my friends tried to teach me about the Lord Jesus Christ and that He was the true and living God. I did not understand what she was saying although I had been exposed to Christian beliefs. In school there had been a statue of what people thought was Jesus Christ, and I was obsessed with keeping a flower at the statue's feet and worshipping that statue every day. For me that statue was Jesus Christ. I argued with my friend that all the religions were the same and led to one God. My friend had written my name in her Bible and had started to pray for my salvation.     

Around four years ago, I happened to see my friend praying to God in a special divine language and began to have an overwhelming desire to know Him and pray to Him. My friend taught me how to pray to the Lord Jesus, and I began to pray. One day I was supposed to meet a friend at a specific time but was delayed because I was spending time praying to the Lord Jesus. When I was finally on my way, I noticed a van parked in front of a house, and some people standing on the other side of the road. A child around 8 years walked out of the house and without looking around she started to cross the road. A motor bike had suddenly appeared from a side lane, and was accelerating towards the child. The people on the other side of the road were shouting to the child, but she seemed not to hear. I was the only one who was on the side of the road where the child was, but I felt like I was too far away from her. I was so scared, but I only had to put my hand out, and the child was not able to walk further on to the road. The speeding bike missed her by a second. I was just there in the nick of time and I don't know how it happened! I believe the I Lord Jesus Christ meant it to I happen that way, so the child I could be saved.

I then accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lord of my life, and I noticed that I was not only joyful, but the fears had gradually started to leave me. I was able to study with less effort and I knew that I had found what was missing in my life I felt complete for the first time in my life.

In life, I have gone through many adverse situations before I came to know the Lord. I went to school when there was a war going on in the north, in the midst of gun fire. I have gone through real floods and real fire and all kinds of natural disasters. Sometimes, when I have been in danger, I have had supernatural protection. Looking back, I now know it was my Lord Jesus who saved my life many times, because He has a plan and a purpose for me. I cannot count the number of times He has saved me - for example, when I nearly drowned, or when a coconut tree fell on the roof of the house just above where I was sleeping! I realize that long before I ever knew my God, He knew me; He formed me in my mother's womb.

I know that I will! have to go through other trials in life, but I know whatever I go through, God covers me, and draws me closer to Himself; I have no fear of the future; God is my refuge and my strength!