Testimonies to God's activity in our lives

Testimony by Mark, member of St. Bartholomew's                                               More testimonies

One of the richest men in the world, John D. Rockefeller, was once asked, “How much money would it take to satisfy you?” Smiling, he quickly replied, “Just a little more." My life was good too, or so I thought; I’d had a difficult childhood but now I was in control. With a university education behind me, I had a good career, a nice home, plenty of money, nice things and lots of friends – the things I thought would make me happy, but still something was missing? The satisfaction of filling my life with material things never lasted long, always leaving me with an emptiness I couldn’t fill, a loneliness I didn’t understand.

As a teenager I had gone to church and tried to be ‘religious’ by being good, but I could never be good enough to earn God’s favour. I thought Christianity was all about rituals, following a set of rules and not having any fun but I never really understood what a Christian was. At university someone explained to me that it wasn’t about what I could do but what God has done in Jesus Christ, his Son. By trying to run my own life and ignoring God I had rejected God. Yet, amazingly, God had taken the initiative to put things right when he laid all my wrongdoings on Jesus on the cross so that I could be forgiven. All I had to do was turn to him and believe... but I didn’t because I loved the world too much.

But God wasn’t letting go and many years later, he came into my life as I understood, at last, that we begin a new relationship with him when we start to live with Jesus as our rescuer, our Lord and our God.

It wasn’t especially dramatic but he revealed himself to me, I asked him to forgive me and he did. I didn’t do anything to deserve it but rather he gave me the strength to trust in him.

My life now is very different and very similar. I have a new desire to serve God and enjoy a relationship with him yet I still experience the same stresses and strains of daily living.  God hasn’t made me perfect – I still do and say things that I’m not proud of - but I know that he helps me to change and forgives me when I fail. My life is now complete, that missing part has been filled by God and I know that he loves me.

March, 2008

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