I’d just like to share with you how I became a Christian and the fantastic difference Jesus has made to my life. I grew up in a Christian family and was always taken to church as a child. I enjoyed Sunday school and continued in the routine throughout my teenage years even when most of my friends had left. I became Christian when I was 9 with quite literally a physical encounter with God from reading a book. On reading one of the lines where a girl becomes a Christian I began shaking and immediately just knew this was true and committed my life to the Lord.

I was baptised in water when I was 18 and soon after I went to University. I loved being away from home, making new friends and settled in straight away. I went to church but found this quite difficult as I had many questions and was very judgmental of the people there and questioned the faith based on other people and their actions. God has shown me since that I let these judgments block the truth and reality of what being a Christian is all about. I loved university life but deep down I knew something was missing – I know now it was Jesus.

In my final months of uni I was sat on my bed and for no apparent reason I began to pray. Tears began to run down my cheeks as I distinctly remember an intense conviction coming over me. I believe God was challenging me and saying “Heidi you can think what you like about the people you know, make all the judgments you want, but what I’m interested in is a relationship with you. Just give me a chance”.

It immediately erased the main so called ‘reason’ I had for dismissing God and now saw my reasons, as just ‘excuses’. God opened my eyes to the truth that he wanted a relationship with me. He wants a personal relationship with everybody and nothing changes that fact.

On returning to Leeds I attended church with my parents. After about a year I had not become involved in church life and felt I was just treading water and going through the motions. One day I decided, if my faith was going to be real then I had to throw myself 100% into it and make it mine – if this Christianity was a load of rubbish then at least I knew for certain either way and that was when I came to Bridge Street. I sat in the balcony and nearly passed out from the heat but I believe God led me here. The people here were quite clearly worshiping and praying in the presence of God, no falseness, it wasn’t for show but a complete heart for the Lord. I had doubts in church leadership and was almost testing god on my last excuse for not fully committing my life to him. I enrolled on the new life course and naively thought it wouldn’t do me any harm to go back over the basics of Christianity and meet some new people. Well God had other plans. Pastor Currie looked us in the eye and explained the responsibility and accountability he has to God because of his position in church. His honesty and integrity erased my final excuse, and I had no, “Yes buts………..” left. So just over a year ago I recommitted my life to God. Although I had grown up in a Christian family it was not until that point that I fully understood that believing in God and having a relationship with Him are two entirely different things. God desires a relationship not just a belief in him. If you view the faith as a box ticking exercise of rules you need to follow, you kind of miss the whole point.

In the last year I can see the footprints of God all over my life. I don’t regret that decision for one second. My faith is based on facts and the truths of the Bible. No matter how I feel, the truth does not change, God does not change, and he is always with me.

So what differences has God made in my life? Loads but I will mention a few.

Firstly I know I have a best friend who I can talk to about anything anytime. I used to find prayer quite strange, just random talking, but now I know my faith is in a God who is alive, who listens and who answers and who wants to be involved in the happy times and the not so happy times. I’m never happy unless I am worrying or dreading something and it is the number one thing that can at times completely cripple me, but God is gently teaching me to unload my burdens onto him. He promises to take these burdens because he cares for us and he never breaks his promise. I’m very good at taking them back again, but I just have to keep recommitting them to him as I learn to let go and trust God with all my circumstances, both the good and the not so. He’s not let me down once and he never will. Being a Christian doesn’t shield you from loneliness, rejection, challenges, illness or whatever but even in such times I know I have a saviour and friend who knows all there is to know about me and loves me all the same, he loves me so much he sent his only son to die for me. Nothing I can do will make him love me any less as he has plans to give everybody a hope, a future, peace and most of all freedom.

As many of us do, I have the potential to worry being good enough, what do my friends think if me, have I treated people how I should? But as I read god’s word it clearly gives me comfort and encouragement. Jesus calls us to act in love, compassion and integrity and when I do that I can forget all the worry cos im following god word and receiving a whole load of love back.

I am on a journey hand in hand with Jesus to break any bonds in my life that can hold us captive. Jesus comes to set us free, bind our wounds and give us all a life of fullness if we let him. God is definitely doing this in my life and when I look back at milestones on the way, I know these have only been possible with his grace, his love and his perfect timing. I tried to do things on my own and in my own time but it just was not possible. With the grace and forgiveness of God, I can extend these to others.

I love the countryside and the mountains. To me there is nothing greater than being sat on a mountain top in the sun and seeing nothing but valleys and mountains. God created this world, its not some accident. If I think the views are spectacular now, I cannot wait to get to Heaven!

Lastly I have never known such joy. It says in the bible that the joy of the lord will be your strength and I believe it. If you know me, you know I love to laugh, but more than that the Lord blesses us with an inner joy knowing that we are totally free and accepted by him. We sing a song at bridge street and it has become a moto for me, “Because he lives I can face tomorrow, because he lives all fear is gone, Because I know, I know he holds the future and life it worth the living just because he lives”. I don’t pretend to be able to answer all the deep theological questions about Christianity and the whys and wherefores about the Bible, but I do know the inescapable truth that Jesus is alive and being in a relationship with him is the best decision I’ve ever made.