From Legalism to Grace

This brief but powerful testimony was first published in 2015 under the title "When Strivings Cease." Read about an American girl growing up in poverty - both literally and spiritually. She grew up attending Christian churches but, like so many, never knowing Christ personally. It came as quite a shock to her when she started suspecting that God knew her, loved her, and wanted a personal relationship with her. She came to feel loved by other human beings around the same time that she was discovering the love of God for her. Both revelations came at the age of 19. At the age of 20, she accepted Jesus as her personal savior, rejecting the Christianity she had been raised with. The primary messages of this testimony are: 1) that God's love for us is not contingent upon our good deeds 2) that God desires our hearts and our actual selves 3) that God is a jealous God, becoming angry when we worship idols, harming ourselves right in front of his eyes 4) that God used a community of believers from India to bring a measure of healing, comfort and stability to my life, letting me experience what it was like to be an accepted, welcomed, and treasured part of a family.