Child Forgiven

It was early Monday morning, the day after Easter (2008), the phone rang and I heard my husband answer it in the next room. I heard him crying and laughing at the same time. Within minutes, he came into the bedroom handing me another phone so that I could listen in.

It was his daughter, Lori, who was telling him that she had given her heart to Jesus. Oh, what joy I felt! She was so excited and full of joy! She was laughing and crying at the same time too, and talking almost non-stop for more than an hour. There was no doubt that she had really fallen in love with Jesus.

Lori had been heavy on our hearts for some time. She was not a bad person, but she, like most people today, didn’t have room for Jesus in her life. She told me one time that she had put God on a shelf. A lot of people keep God there, thinking He will be handy when they need Him. But even in her greatest heartache and grief, it was some time before she realized that Jesus was as close as her prayer of surrender.

She thought her world had turned upside down when her husband died about fourteen months earlier. She went through the motions of carrying on her life, but inside she was dying.

I had gone through the same kind of grief when I was close to her age, so she did listen to me as I tried to console her. The message I tried to convey to her, over and over, was that she needed the Holy Spirit to help her take away the pain, that Jesus loved her and was waiting for her to come to Him. I told her that having the Holy Spirit in my life was the only way I had been able to survive.

But it seemed as though she was not listening. She later told us how deep the depression was and how very dark her life became. She said that she really felt like the devil was trying to kill her.

Oh, what a difference Jesus makes! During our conversation with her that early morning in March, we could hear the change in her voice. She had ‘done a 180’! She talked about the peace and the joy she felt. Her world was suddenly brighter, the sky bluer and the flowers prettier. She wanted to tell everyone about Jesus!

I asked Lori for permission to share how God answered our prayer for her. This is what she wrote back to me. In her own words:

“I am so blessed and want everyone to know it. God has saved my life and given me such a beautiful new one in the relationship I have with Him. I am not worthy of all the love and joy I feel everyday just knowing He is my Father who loves me unconditionally and wants nothing from me except my faithfulness to Him forever. Wow, what a "no brainer".

I am amazed and love the cleansing I feel each morning as I pray with my eyes closed then open them to feel tears just pour down my face. Not just a couple, but enough to wipe from the floor! To feel the Lord from every ounce of my being is incredible. I am tearing as I write this to you because I am so thankful for the peace He has restored in me and the life that has been opened up for me through His love.”

Do you know your sins are forgiven?
"In Him (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Eph. 1:3