Testimonies

My Testimony

On January 3, 1998 at 8:30am, my mother and I were in a car wreck in which she died. I was 17. She loved the Lord and had always encouraged me to spend time with Him in His Word and to know Him. By heeding her advice He became my first love. At the wreck, I prayed that the Lord would take care of her and He did. He took her home to be with Him. While I was in the hospital, I experienced the peace that passes understanding.

The following summer the Lord spoke to me, saying, “I will never change”. This became very important to me because my life was seriously changing. I was beginning to go through emotional and psychological turmoil, which began as questions. One particular day my mind began to race. Absolutely everything was a question to me and it was so confusing. This experience was more terrible than losing my mom. I questioned the Lord and everything I knew about Him. What was His purpose? What was the reason for being saved? I knew He did not change, but I no longer knew what He did not change from. I was like an empty whirlwind inside.

Eventually, the Lord spoke to me through the Bible. First I felt released by Lamentations 3:22 which says, “It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed”. Then one night I opened the Bible and read John 14:1, “Do not let your heart be troubled”. I spoke to the Lord asking Him to confirm this to me and was amazed when I came to verse 27 which says, “peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”. Later I was also helped by Isaiah 40:31, “Yet those who wait on Jehovah will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and will not faint; they will walk and will not become weary.”

After these promises I was finally able to set aside some of the things I did not understand and I began to trust Him again. I am now thankful for those experiences because the Lord allowed me to see how subtle and deceptive His enemy is and how the Lord’s voice, in contrast, is full of Life and peace.

Eventually I decided to go back to school. I got involved in different Christian groups. While much of my time with them was sweet, I still felt hungry for the deeper things of God’s heart. Eventually I signed up on a contact list for Christians on Campus. I was contacted and started meeting with them to study the Bible. I began hearing things I had never heard explained before. The Lord kept confirming the things I was hearing and I began to understand many things in the Old and New Testaments that I had never understood. The Lord began to answer old questions and I began to see His heart and His purpose. I was happier than I had been for several years.

Now, years later, I’m helping to serve with Christians on Campus, and the Lord “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth” is amazing me more than ever.

Elise Jeffries