In order to really know about me, you have to first know about my heart, and the thing that is a t my very core is Jesus. He is the reason for all I do and he gives me a hope for tomorrow and a light to show others that same hope. I have been a “Christian” my whole life. I was raised in the church, went to Sunday school, and went to VBS, all the normal things. Youth group since I was 12 and went to all the retreats. However, it wasn’t till I was in 9th grade that I really took the step to deepen my relationship with Him. It was at a winter youth camp that I could no longer sit in mediocrity and I found myself hungering after something deeper and something more meaningful, something that could truly rock the foundation of my life to its very core. I expected something amazing to happen. Some immediate change, like when I got back to the normal everyday life it was going to be so radically different that people weren’t going to be able to recognize. Then after a while I realized that it wasn’t something that was just going to happen. It was something that I had to put effort into. I had to work. A relationship isn’t just something that you take from. Its about giving too. They say that it is better to give than to receive. Well I didn’t really understand that until I started to give to Christ. Day by day the more I turned over to him the more I saw my life begin to change and the more I discovered how he takes a hold of every part of who I am. It is still hard and it’s still something that takes work, but my faith is something that develops more and more everyday. The testing of your faith develops perseverance and that is something that comes with being a follower of Christ. That’s what makes this life such a battle, is that we aren’t just fighting against having to balance time, or other types of distractions, but its that fact that behind those distractions are forces that would like it nothing more than for us to face our ultimate demise. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”* The only person who can fight these battles is Christ in our place. We have to give all of our struggles and battles to him for him to fight, and that’s the only was we can ever be victorious.
*Ephesians 6:12
