From Broken to Blessed

I am glad I have eternal life because even when I cannot understand God's plans, I know He has never left me and He never will. He has the power to help me overcome any obstacle in my path, for His glory.

My earliest memories are not pleasant ones and involved physical and sexual abuse by my father which continued until I was 19. I was convinced my mother did not love me. My weight made me feel valueless and I became bulimic for 15 years. My family home burned to the ground when I was 15, and then again when I was 17. I knew what it was like to have absolutely nothing at all. I struggled with thoughts of suicide. I had accepted Christ when I was 9, but I was in a legalistic church that led me to believe that my sin returned me to a lost condition. I felt hopeless. One night I was determined to drive off of a sharp curve near my home and end it all. I met a man from Guatemala that night who began to talk to me after work. He shared with me that God loved me. I had felt so unloved, so broken and so valueless, yet He was right. God did love me. He had a purpose in all the pain I had endured in my short life. That night my heart was reawakened to the Savior I had accepted all those years ago. I found hope in the message of Grace, not condemnation. He has since healed my brokenness and delivered me from bulimia. He helped me forgive my father and mother. I am not perfect. My life is not perfect. But I am hidden in Christ who is perfect, and who is perfecting me.

The same healing power of God's abundant love and matchless grace help me to know that I will, without a shadow of a doubt, be in Heaven with Him when I leave this earth. It will never be because of anything I have done or not done. It is all about what Jesus did for me on the cross, taking my place, providing salvation for me. He has redeemed my life. I am covered by his robes of righteousness and my sin is blotted out by the blood of Christ. He is the only reason I will be able to enter Heaven's gates, and I look forward to the day I will be able to thank the one who was bruised for my iniquities and by whose stripes I have been healed.