Hey guys, so this is where I wanted to take the time to tell you about my story if you don’t know it already. The reason I am writing this is to simply to be honest about my life and give you an inside scoop on how i’ve become the person I am today!
I grew up in a strong Christ-centered household and we went to church every single Sunday that we possibly could. Multiple family members have been missionaries so ever since I was young so i’ve always thought “Oh this is exactly what I’m gonna do when I grow up!” Since I was raised in this christian environment I got baptized at a pretty young age, my sister was doing it so I was like, “well I want to do this too so I can show that I believe in Jesus”.
So I was going along doing life and things were good. I started to think, God life is going good don’t worry about me I can handle this. This mindset led me to being vulnerable for Satan to put lies in my head. I was really having doubts about God; not of who He was but doubts of if He actually wanted a relationship with me. I didn’t understand if (and how) the Lord could have this desire to pursue me and my heart. Because of these doubts I had such a back and forth relationship with the Lord. I would be on a “Jesus high” then fizzle out because I was only going through the motions. In addition to allowing lies to fill my head I ended up getting really depressed. For a while I didn’t understand that is what it was, and I was just so confused at why I constantly struggled so much mentally and felt the way I did. I was so tired of being out of control that I tried to find a way to change that. I thought that if I hurt myself things would be better because I would at least be in control of my pain. THIS WAS THE COMPLETE WRONG THING TO DO because I was just bringing more pain and hurt into my life. So one night I just really started to question what I was doing (because this wasn’t a good place or the right path) and so I started to pray. I didn’t really even know what to say but I knew the absolute only thing I could do was to cry out to the Lord. Right then and there the Lord started crushing these lies that I allowed the enemy to tell me. After this night I started seeking and resting in Him more than ever before and every lie started becoming weaker and weaker to the point that I was no longer believing the lies Satan was telling me, or feeling consumed by this depression and pain. Once I was in this “good place” I started relying on myself again and thinking “hey God thank you I really needed you right there but I’m good so you can go focus on other people that need you more”. So I started fizzling out again getting into this back and forth relationship with God.
I ended up getting in a dating relationship as a Junior in high school. So time goes on and I start putting this guy and our relationship above God on my list of priorities without even realizing it. I stopped focusing on who God was calling me to be, and I was just dating who I wanted, acting how I wanted, not truly pursuing the Lord and honestly just barely going through the motions. Since I was still putting up this image I had convinced myself that I was that good, christian kid that does everything right and has a great relationship with the Lord while also maintaining a dating relationship and friendships (but let me tell you…I was not this person). My heart had started to harden towards the Lord and again I was just not going down the path that He was calling me to. So eventually the Lord ended up ending this relationship, and it was the sweetest thing that could have happened. Because my heart was so hardened towards the Lord I got to walk through this process of experiencing overwhelming redemption, grace, love, etc.
A couple months before all of this goes down I received a letter from the Lord through my sister, I read it, and I was overcome with emotions. I broke down before even reading the first word. I was just overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit and really feeling that presence and comfort for the first time. But I still didn’t allow everything He was saying to be applied to my life. I was thinking THIS IS AWESOME, but I didn’t really give God any room to change things in my life.
…So after lots of things did end up changing I really wanted to give the Lord control of every part of my life and I really make room for Him to work through me, and I kept going back to this letter. It continually wrecked me because it gave me perspective on where I really was and who I had really become. I had asked the Lord to humble me and boy he really did that, daily.
Overtime I kept running to the Lord more and more but I was still bitter with God. I wasn’t experiencing Him how I wanted, He was solely speaking through the people around me. But as time went on and He continued to really work in me. I got to be broken down so that the foundation of who I was became the person that the Lord created me to be. I got to begin this crazy journey of a constant cycle of being broken down to be built back up in the way the Lord intended.
Throughout my time on the race I got to see a glimpse of how beautiful that cycle is. I got to see that our hearts have to constantly stay in a place of surrender and worship and through that we will get to experience the Lord in ways we never would have imagined. We get to rest in the fact that no matter what stage of this journey we are in the Lord is willing to go to the ends of the Earth for us. We get to be confident in who He is, because of who He has always been and the promise that He will never change.
So this is my story, maybe you’re thinking to yourself “geez Ave this so so long why did you want to share all of this?” and it’s because God calls us to live boldly so I want to do that by being vulnerable and telling anyone that will listen (in this case read) how the Lord has moved throughout my life so far. and maybe my story looks similar to yours, maybe we have nothing in common. Either way, if you have any questions or MAYBE you are willing to share your story, good times/difficulties you’ve experienced or even ones you’re experiencing right now, I would absolutely LOVE to hear from you and listen!!!! So i hope this gave you an idea of who Avery Jones is and again please please please feel free to contact me through the phone, email, dm, whatever way you can figure out to get in touch with me, i would absolutely love to hear from you!
lots of love,
avery
