GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS!!
A testimony of Gods faithfulness and how he used this man to strengthen my relationship with Him:
As I’ve been on this journey I have made it my goal to make my faith my own and seek understanding in what has been the “questions of my faith”. While I was in Thailand I had an intriguing conversation with someone who was atheist. We sat around a camp life and discussed the differences in what we believed, it was incredible. One thing he said struck me hard and put me in my pondering mode for weeks on after, he said “you aren’t going to like hearing this, but you are only a Christian because you are from America. That’s just what Americans believe, if you were from Thailand you would be Buddhist, or from India you would be Hindu. They all do the same thing, you just picked that one because you are from the states.” I didn’t know how to respond to this and I instantly began to seek wisdom and discernment on this, i called friends, googled, watched sermons and prayed, nothing really gave me a response that seemed to fill the void of understanding. Until in one video Jonathan Pokluda said this “No one who has studied religions would ever say ‘all the religions are right and you can just select one’ because if that was the case you should just pick Christianity, it is the easiest, Christ died FOR US, but one is right the others have to be wrong, and in studying Christianity you would convert yourself by what you find.” I decided this was the closest thing to an answer I would probably receive to my question on this side of Heaven, so I tried to take that and move on, but I would still inwardly cringe when I thought of the comment about my Christian faith being only a result of where I was raised.
Until this past month! When God radically used Paul from Malaysia to put all my anxious doubts to rest. About two weeks ago, we had a church service where they announced it was Paul’s birthday and they had him walk to the front of the church, where they asked for a volunteer to pray over him, I instantly volunteered, I had a strange pull towards this sweet man and wanted to bless him! After I prayed over him and everyone told him happy birthday and we left church and I asked the woman I am staying with named Prema about Paul. She told me he is still semi new to the church and he used to worship a different god. A statue god. I silently thanked God for his conversion and went on with my day.
Two days later we had a prayer meeting at the church and were split into many small groups to pray over the community and the churches needs. I was placed with Paul!!! Before we prayed he explained that his English wasn’t very good. We prayed and had a little time left over, so I decided to ask about his testimony. In Malaysia it is illegal to openly evangelize and I was curious to know who the brave soldier was that brought Paul the good news without fear of persecution. “Where you born into a Christian family?” I asked, already knowing my answer.
Paul chuckled “ohhhh no. I was not. Not too long ago I was a different religion. I followed a different god. I was very dedicated for 40 years serving a god who wasn’t real.”
Me: “oh my goodness! That’s wild! Who told you about Jesus?”
Paul: No one. Well, I guess God did!
Me: Yes but who explained Christianity to you?
Paul, in PERFECT ENGLISH: No one. I was a priest of a different religion, the highest up you could be, well respected in the community of the other people who worshipped this god. But I was not at peace. I was stressed. I worked every single day for years and deep inside I knew it was doing nothing. No one knew but I was struggling. I decided I would figure out a new religion that would bring me true joy, and I studied, at one book store I found a Bible and decided to study it, I realized Christianity is the easiest religion so I thought I was secretly look into it, but once I did God showed me who He was. I could no longer serve other gods. He died for me. I am His son now. I have the freedom I was looking for in Him!
I had tears in my eyes as I realized God sent me a real life human to be the answer to my impossible question. HE SEEKS AFTER US. All we have to do is take a little initiative and HE FINDS US. He doesn’t leave us where we were, no matter where we were born or what we’ve done or what we used to believe. HE REVEALS HIMSELF TO US.
Paul has now been attending a Christian Church for 2 years and his wife and daughter have grown to love the Lord. They are faithful members and I am BLESSED to call them all my brothers and sisters in Christ. Praise the God who answers even our toughest questions!
