In order to be warriors rather then worriers, we need to KNOW and TRUST the one who’s army we are aligning ourselves with.  For myself, my belief in Jesus came when I was very young – I have shared my story in an earlier blog post.  And, even though I drifted from the Lord in my teens, as many of us do, I never stopped believing and I never stopped trusting.

My belief and trust was taken to a whole new level when I re-committed my life to the Lord in my late teens. This was when I really started walking in a personal relationship with Christ.  This was when everything changed.

When its personal, its close.  Its defining. Its undeniable.

Going to church will certainly help you in this process, but it will not make it personal. It will not make your a better Christian.

Church will certainly grow your faith and grow your understanding of Christ, but you will only grow as a Christian through a personal relationship with Jesus.

The simple definition of a Christian is “belonging to the party of Christ” or being ” a follower of Christ”. You have to KNOW who you are following in order to follow in faith and trust and love.

I am by no means against church. But I am wholeheartedly for relationship.

Relationship changes lives!

It is not about knowledge.  It is not about attendance or the works.  It’s all about relationship.

Look at the great men in the bible.  God spoke to them. God propelled them to take action.  They took action!

They did not worry or fret.  They just took the step and trusted that God would work things out.

They went to war with God on their side – and they won!

The personal wars and battles that we face today are no less important to God.  God uses the same power and the same spirit to overcome the enemy.  Warfare is warfare – whether its physical or spiritual.

God is mighty to move.

God is mighty to save!

And all we need to do is seek and know Him – the one in that we are trusting in.

WORD FOR WORD!

This testimony was found on the CRU blog which features hundreds of similar stories.

Seahawks’ Okung describes his faith story

The story of Russell Okung

I grew up being extremely self-sufficient. My father passed away when I was a young child, making me the man of the household. Since then I’ve taken on that responsibility. As I grew up I did  a lot of things for myself and became really independent.

In college, a hurricane went through Houston and my mom and sister were at the house by themselves— I was off at school. It was a tough time. They called and said the house had flooded.

They told me they would be all right, but I remember looking at myself and asking, “Why?”

Why was this going on? Why did my father pass away when I was a child? Why did I feel this way?

All of these “whys.” In asking that, I found out some things were just out of my control; I couldn’t do everything on my own. I thought that there had to be something bigger to make sense of what was happening in my life.

I remember sitting at chapel one day when God spoke to me.

It’s crazy how God will come to you even in the most small, subtle ways— maybe even a whisper. He told me “You don’t have to do this alone. You’re not by yourself.”

At that moment, I realized God had always been there— since I was a very small child even. Even though I thought I was doing things on my own, I couldn’t have done anything without Him.

When that happened, I knew God could only be my present hope. If I truly believed in Him, everything would take care of itself.

And it did.

All of a sudden, I noticed things were changing. I felt more of a peace within me and a peace about my situations. I learned and trusted God with everything I had and decided to give it all to Him.