From Nothing to Purpose

Before I received eternal life I felt empty with no purpose in life. My self-esteem was very low because I was coming from a low class family with little resources for a better life.

I remember each time my school was preparing for activities like school trips, I would simply disappear from class because I felt It was so irrelevant to me and served no purpose other than to embarrass me. Teachers in the rural areas had tendencies of directly or indirectly attacking our self-esteem in a way that very made one feel very useless. I didn't like going to church because I did not have "proper" clothes to wear. My mother was not married to my father, they were only co-habiting for most of my youth until they decide to get married when I was 16 years old. They used to fight and my mother would pick and sleep at a friend's house. Life had no purpose for only to survive the day and wait to see what happens tomorrow.

When I was 15 years old, certain gentleman who was my senior in High school invited me to join him in an evening service in his church. The Preacher was speaking about the story of Lazarus being brought back to life. he said Jesus was the resurrection and the life. If Jesus could raise a man and make people around him happy, how much more can he do to me who is not even dead. People had left Lazarus alone with the dead, but he was brought back and became a normal person among people again. I made a decision to accept this Jesus who could make me a normal person and cause people to be happy when the see me.

After that, the attitude I had about my situation was that "I'm not worse than Lazarus". I believed that Jesus loved me the same as he loved Lazarus. I believed that whatever is broken in me or even dead, Jesus can bring back to life. I believe that Jesus wants me to live. I believe that Jesus has a purpose for my life that is why he saved me, like had a purpose for raising Lazarus.

In my final two years of my high school I would ask the principal for some few minutes to preach at the school assembly, something I would NEVER dare do before. Not because I was shy, but because I felt not good enough to stand and talk in front of people. I remember one day there was a sports trip where the rest of the students were going for some games. I was there, not travelling with them, but in the absence of the teacher who used to pray, the sports teacher asked me to pray. Normally, i would have been nowhere near that assembly before I got saved because It was such a big embarrassment to stand in a group of students travelling when you were not. But my self-confidence coming from knowing that God loves me and that God had a bigger purpose for my life made me overlook the temporary lack or resources and had to face with.

One of the key verses in the story of Lazarus is verse 24 and 25: "Martha replied, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this. In verse 26 Jesus ask the if they believe this. I decided to believe that statement. In my life I have inner peace that through my faith in Jesus Christ, I have eternal life. Indeed Jesus is the Resurrection because he died and rose again. If I believe in the one who died and rose again I have to be confident that I have eternal life.