My Testimony
“Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee” (Mark 5:19 KJV). I would like to tell you what great things God has done for me and how He has had great compassion on me.
I was raised in a wonderful Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Christian home. My parents taught me about God and the Bible and salvation in Jesus. They taught me the importance of good health and how to preserve it. My Sabbath School teacher and elementary school teacher taught us the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. I sought God as a young person. I had a lovely teacher in seventh grade who made time every day in school to read The Story of Redemption and gave us time to pray alone, sometimes outside in nature. My senior year of high school was also a spiritual time for me. I had friends and teachers who were committed to God and who had a great influence on me.
Somewhere along the way, in college and thereafter, other things became more important to me. My degree and then my career became very important, and time with God was less important. I was very lukewarm, but as many who are lukewarm, I didn’t know it. I began to believe that obedience to God, including keeping the Sabbath, was legalism. I questioned many of the doctrines of the church by reading scriptures out of context and eventually came to believe that I had been deceived by my church. I stopped attending and dropped my membership. However, the slide from Seventh-day Adventist to non-SDA was almost imperceptible.
In our newfound “freedom in Christ,” my husband and I brought home a bottle of wine. We didn’t like it much at first. But it eventually became a staple. A few years later, I found myself divorced, addicted to alcohol, and separated from God. After a while, my health began to bother me. I had bad stomach aches and somehow, I knew (maybe the Holy Spirit?) that alcohol had a lot to do with it. I would wake up with a hangover and miserable, but by evening would rationalize that just one drink wouldn’t hurt me. After all, I needed it, and I deserved it after a stressful day. And then the cycle would repeat. I thought for a long time that I could break the habit whenever I was ready, but proved after many, many attempts that I was unable to do so on my own. I also was convinced that alcohol would eventually destroy me. I read an article in a magazine about the maximum amount men vs. women should drink on a daily or weekly basis, and I started counting the number of drinks. Even by worldly standards, I was out of control. That was an eye-opener.
Replace the Bad Habit with a Good Habit
I finally couldn’t do drinking anymore. I knew I might lose friends and people I cared a lot about, but I also wanted to live. I remembered a time when my life was better and happier. So, I made a plan. I would make another attempt to quit or at least drink less, and I would make a note of each failure. And if this last attempt was not successful, I would ask for help. At this time, I was also reading my Bible because I wanted to find God. I started in Genesis and when I read Deuteronomy 4:29, I knew God would help me. Moses said, speaking to Israel if they were to apostatize and be scattered, “But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” I was overwhelmed that God would still want to help me after all this, and He planted in me a mustard seed of faith.
After a couple more months, I realized my last attempt had failed, and I had to get help. It took a lot of courage, but I asked a friend for help. My friend said that it would take a lot of prayer, and noted that I was already halfway there, and shared a Bible verse that became very meaningful to me: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). The Holy Spirit impressed me that I needed to replace the bad habit with a good habit. So instead of drinking, I started reading my Bible every evening until I went to bed. I read through the Psalms. About ten days later, I had my last drink ever. God amazingly answered our prayers. God is so powerful, and when He makes promises in His Word, He will keep His promises. He delivered me!
True Obedience to God = Acknowledging His Authority as God & More
God, however, had more plans for me than I realized. He helped me understand that I was wrong about alcohol being “okay.” It had nothing to do with legalism, but that God cared about my health. I was surprised at how clear my mind was. I wondered if I was wrong about alcohol, what about the Sabbath? Was I wrong about that too? God truly humbled me. He had given me my life back, and I didn’t want to miss this opportunity. So, I began Bible studies. My pride kicked against some of what I studied, but I couldn’t get enough. I read some of the books by Ellen G. White again and was blown away by the love of God for me. I also found out through my Bible study that true obedience to God, out of love for Him, is not legalism. It is acknowledging His authority as God and showing our love for Him. The Sabbath is a beautiful gift from God to share time with Him. I studied Bible prophecies again and the three angels’ messages and it was as if I was learning about them for the first time. I studied through all the passages that I had taken out of context and found out what was the context, and I also studied plain passages of Scripture that explained the more difficult ones.
I read again 2 Thessalonians 2:10: “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (emphasis supplied). I previously did not have a love of the truth and would pick out only the Bible verses that supported what I wished to believe. Now God brought me back to embrace the whole truth. Seventh-day Adventists have an incredible message to give that is wholly true because it is biblical. I was rebaptized soon after this. God also led me to a deeper understanding of discipleship through daily prayer, Bible study, Scripture memorization, and sharing with others. Daily communion with God and allowing Him to write His Word on our hearts is such a blessing. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11). I thank God that He loves us so much that He doesn’t stop trying to reach us after a few tries. He continues to draw us to Him and finds us wherever we are, no matter how long it takes for us to recognize Him and His amazing love for us. Jesus gave me health and life—and the greatest gift, He gave Himself!
Call to Action
Jesus is coming very soon. The signs are all around. It’s time to do as Jesus says in Luke 21:34: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares.” “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11). Let us wake up from our slumber and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and that He is coming soon. The Lord is mighty to save. What He did for me, He can and will do for you. Praise His name!
All scripture taken from the King James Version.
