I grew up going to church and always knew who Jesus was. At the age of 12 during a revival I asked Christ to come into my life. I knew that Christ was my Savior but didn’t fully understand what that meant until years later.

I felt like I had to work at religion. I tried to be a good person, but I was never quite good enough. I started to drift away from God and turn to the world for my comfort. I thought I could do it on my own, make myself happy, but my life seemed to be going nowhere. I had no hope, no peace, no future, and I knew there had to be something more. So I turned back to the Savior I knew growing up and had accepted into my life years ago. I began to realize having Jesus as my Savior was more than practicing a religion. It was even more than just believing in Him. It was giving your life over to Him. It was a relationship -a personal relationship- with the creator of the universe!

As I surrender my life to Christ each day I am filled with a hope for the future, a hope that is only found in Christ. Jeremiah 29:11 says “’For I know the plans I have for you’ declares the Lord ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’” When the world tries to pull me away again I just turn to the one thing I know for certain. That is the love of God and the hope that comes only from Him.