SHARE Magazine October 2017 | Page 21

T How Jesus Found Me I My life before Jesus I was born into a Muslim family and although we believed in Jesus, we never believed he was God or crucified/resurrected for our sins. Before I accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour, I was very confident and was a really shy person due to high anxiety. I struggled to make friends and was always having negative thoughts as I could never fit in. Throughout my life I always wondered what the meaning of life was. I started looking around to find hope, but found no satisfactory answers so I became an atheist as I felt that my prayers were not being answered, especially when my prayers didn’t help my late father get better from his really bad illness. How did I hear about the Gospel of Jesus? I first heard about the name ‘Jesus’ through primary school but I didn’t really learn much about Him and the Bible until I went to a very religious catholic school. Here I had my first experience of Church and the Christian faith. However, here I experienced further doubt about religion which resulted in my becoming an atheist. At this point I used to study religion to disprove Christianity and God. When I started University, it all changed. I kept seeing this man for a year everywhere I looked when no one else could. I thought I was going crazy. He kept referencing the Bible, which is when I discovered this man was Jesus. After these experience I decided to go to a Church to find answers and over the summer of 2014 I started talking to a local pastor back home and started going to Church for a few weeks before I gave my life to Christ. When I received Jesus When I decided to go to Church and gave my life to Jesus, I suddenly felt a burst of energy flowing through my body. I started looking at the world a lot more and noticed beauty in the world. All I could think about was Jesus and I started feeling positive every time I did. Although I struggled to admit Jesus as my Lord and Saviour initially as my family wouldn’t be happy with my decision, my heart was pounding when I prayed to accept Jesus into my life with a couple of friends at the back of a bookshop. How has my life changed because of Jesus? What is my outlook now? After accepting Christ I feel much more confident than I did before. I have been blessed with many relevant people in my life who have been helping me with issues I have been facing. I have not been experiencing as much low anxiety and suicidal feelings as I used to. I feel a new hope and fulfilment in life and I now know that if I come across a problem, I leave it to God and Christ and often the right people will come into my life at the right time. In other words, a lot of moments happened in my life in the past 2 years that people would pass of as coincidences, which I believe to be answered prayers in Jesus’ name. p October - December 2017 SHARE | MAGAZINE | 21