My Testimony
Many people believe that Christians begin with an easy life and the reason they should not become Christians is because they already have too many problems, so they would not fit the criteria. However, that is a myth. As a Christian I have faced many hard and difficult things in my life, but once they pass I count each as a blessing. God uses hard things to humble us or teach us lessons that we would not have learned in any other circumstance.
As a freshman I developed a condition called ulcerative colitis. It is basically when a person’s colon becomes aggravated causing the person to have internal bleeding. Being an ignorant freshman I figured it would go away, and did not tell my parents I was sick. So after losing about 20 pounds in two weeks and having no energy whatsoever, my parents finally made me tell them what was wrong. We went straight to the doctor who said my blood count was so low that he could not see how I was not unconscious and getting blood transfusions. I immediately started medications to stop the bleeding. We were able to control the bleeding with the medicine for about three years, but I was on 34 pills a day. I was swallowing more pills than food! I had developed a headache that did not go away for three and a half years. It would ease up sometimes but never completely went away. Many people prayed for me. Others invited me to healing services, and a few even tried to convince me that there must be some great sin in my life that was causing this to happen to me. But God saw fit to let me keep this “blessed” ulcerative colitis. I believe that God allowed me to have to slow me down and give me time to rely on Him more. In the Bible, Job goes through many hardships. He looses everything he owns, everyone he loves is against him, and as he sits naked, with nothing but boils covering his body, he praises God! When I first became sick I constantly felt miserable and could not figure out why I was given this problem, but I soon realized that I don’t need to know the reason and that I need to praise God in all things. My senior year in high school the medications were not helping anymore and the bleeding came back and would not stop. My doctor’s advice was to remove my colon and be done with it. But as a senior in high school I did not want to give up and finish my year in bed. So I started an herbal medication called Primal Defense and a lot of prayers began to go up. Within 6 months I the bleeding had stopped, I was back to my normal healthy weight, and my headache was gone!
I still have times when I don’t feel one hundred percent, but I praise God for everything he has done for me. I may never know why I have been given this problem, but I can only pray that God has and will continue to use it in some way for His glory.
I strongly believe in my faith and relationship with Jesus Christ. I will proudly share and stand up for what I believe in, but will never shove it in someone’s face or even dream that I am any better than anyone else. I have no right to judge anyone for something they have done, because I have sins as well. The only difference is that I am forgiven for my sins and I have the fulfillment of knowing that I don’t have to worry about all those sins and that I will be in heaven some day.
My favorite verse is 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Paul is speaking of a “thorn in his flesh”. No one knows exactly what problem Paul had, but in this verse he tells us that no matter what we are going through that we should praise God and that those trials He will make us stronger…
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ..
-ANMMEFRW
Amy & Bethany in MA