Testimony from Abi Salmon
LIFE: What's the point? Why bother? Who cares? Why can't I get completely drunk? What does it really matter anyway?
Have you ever asked one of these questions? I have and the Bible has an answer... Go on I dare you to read on...
'Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven - and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all - life healed and whole'. (1 Peter 1:3)There are 2 ways to live?
Hello I'm Abi, just your average, ordinary geography student at Coventry University, currently starting my third year, with all the anxiety and excitement that that prospect brings - Dissertation blues but student life freedoms! Why am I telling you this stuff, because I want to tell you about a life changing decision that I made to follow Jesus.I had a pretty 'normal' childhood growing up in the south-east of England - going to church every Sunday, doing the School thing and having sibling rivalries with my brothers.
The teenage years struck! My attitude and self-awareness started to change. At school I was never very good academically - I found schoolwork hard and frustrating - Slow to produce work and struggled my way through coursework and writing. I struggled with writing and always have. I became a very insecure early teenager, because school was such a struggle and the feeling of frustration and failure was constantly a part of my daily life.
Because of the failure I felt in my schoolwork, I tried to make myself acceptable and win praise and attention in other ways. From age 14 I denied that there was a God, you had to be stupid to believe there was a God. I turned the frustration and the failure in my work towards my outward appearance. If only I was thin everything would be alright because people accepted you if you were thin. My world and my mental attitude became very insular. Christianity seemed to prevent me from doing a lot of things I wanted to do - frustrated that it prevented me from doing things my mates were getting up too.
So why did I then decide to follow Jesus and become a Christian?
Because I have come to realise that what I want? And what I look like? And what I achieve academically? And how many friends I have? At the end of the day it doesn't really matter!What matters is my relationship and value in God that matters? Not my weight on the scales, number of friends or my grade on academic bits of paper!
'For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life' (John 3:16)
I came to realise that I was living in rebellion against God who had made me - me. I have come to understand that God loves me no matter what - that the wrong I have thought and done against God, people and myself (which the Bible calls sin) can be forgiven by Jesus' death on the cross. All I have to do is put my trust in God!
'He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed' (1 Peter 2:24) 'Count yourself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.' (Romans 6:11)
My life; insecurities and stubbornness in doing my own thing has not changed over night - It has taken me time to truly accept God as a God who loves me no matter what and to learn to live by his grace (his forgiveness) as a Christian. It has taken time to see how God, through Jesus Christ sees me and not how I see myself in the mirror - I would just like to finish my story with a quote from Paul, a fellow Christian in the Bible talking about his relationship with Jesus. 'I am not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onwards - to Jesus. I am off and running and not turning back'. (Philippians 3: 12-14)
I now try to live a life for God - And not trying to keep up with the latest trends - body image and materialistic possessions because I live a life free in God's never ending love and forgiveness and a life to live for God ...'Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven - and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all - life healed and whole'. 1 Peter 1: 3