When did you become a believer?
“I became a believer when I was 9 and never really allowed that to influence my life in any way throughout pretty much my whole life until I was 17. And that’s when I started following Jesus and that’s when my life really changed. I’ve always believed in God, but I really started following him when I was 17.”
What helped you grow in your first year of following God?
“Discipline in getting up and getting in the Word every single morning, no matter how I felt and umm making that a habit and like a spiritual discipline in my life.”
How would you encourage people to start these disciplines?
“So, it is honestly just a conscious effort to like know that getting in the Word is going to grow me closer to God and getting in the Word is ultimately what teaches me more about God. And that if I really desire to follow Him, I know that it is something that had to be a priority in my life. And so even if you aren’t able to do it in the morning, do it at some point throughout the day when it is quiet and there is nothing distracting you. Just make that a priority at some point of your day. And in my opinion, the morning is the best time because it’s when the world is still quiet and is when the world is still asleep in every way. So yeah, just making it a priority and making a conscious effort and a conscious decision, not in a legalistic way, but in a way that I have to do this and I want to in order to learn more about God.”
In the past year, what has helped you in your spiritual walk the most?
“Mentorship, and having a mentor and being discipled by someone is 100% no questions asked the most helpful thing.”
How did you find a mentor?
“Well I wasn’t really actively seeking it out, but I knew that mentorship was something that I knew was important to me and I knew that being discipled by somebody was always an essential part of Christian life and so I had been praying for a mentor. I didn’t just find someone that is five years older than me. My mentor is well over ten years older than me, I think she is 13 years or so older than me. But umm I just asked the Lord to give me one. And I was willing to go out and find that. But she really was the one who started to umm pursue a relationship with me after I had gone to a small group or whatever that she had been leading with her husband.”
Is there anything that you do everyday to really work on your faith?
“Staying in the word 100%. But even if I don’t somedays, just constant prayer. Like Paul says, be unceasing in prayer. Literally everything that I do, I try to talk to the Lord about, even if it is just little things throughout my day, it doesn’t have to be in the morning when you sit down and try to conjure up some crazy spiritual prayer. No, he receives your thoughts from afar. And he receives every single thought and he wants you to give the little things. So definitely praying without ceasing and staying in the Word every single day, no matter what time of day that is.”
If you were just picking up the Bible for the first time as a believer, where would you start and why?
“Definitely the book of Luke. Because it gives a really detailed narrative of the birth of Jesus and why he was coming. It also tells about John the Baptist and how he set that up too and paved the way for the Lord and gave people a depiction of the Lord’s holiness. In everything he pointed to how holy God was, like when he said, ‘Look at Him, whose sandals I am unworthy to untie.” The whole book just goes over the character of Jesus and yeah.”
Where do you want to be in five years when it comes to your faith?
“More childlike, less of myself, and umm refined. I just really want to be dead to myself, if that makes sense. That’s really it. I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next five years, but I know that if I’m at the feet of Jesus in every single moment, that that’s all that matters.”
What is something you wish you would have known when you became a Christian?
“Being tempted doesn’t mean that you’ve already given in. And being tempted doesn’t always look like being tempted to go drink, or smoke, or go do this. Temptation can be something such as being tempted to be discouraged or to be tempted to think really bad thoughts about someone, or to not believe what God says is true. So temptation is literally around every single corner. And so if we don’t put on our spiritual armor every single day, we are allowing the day to overcome us. Temptation doesn’t always look like what we think it would look like, and being tempted doesn’t mean that you’ve already given in.”
What is the hardest part about being a Christian in today’s world?
“Saying no to people. Whether they are christian or not. Saying no as in disagreeing with them. For some reason, I feel like the world has put this stigma on Cristians that if you are a Christian you have to agree, and that if you are a Christian you have to be a peacemaker that can’t say anything or ruffle any feathers. When that is the opposite of what we should do. So yeah, the hardest thing is people pleasing and not feeding into that temptation. Hold fast to your beliefs and also discernment and knowing when to like tell a non-believer that their believing is untrue. And it’s hard, but it comes from loving them and building relationships with them. But yeah, definitely people pleasing is the hardest thing about being a Christian.”
What have you found is the best way to overcome struggles?
“Prayer. Just prayer. But also the Word. Like if you don’t have the Word hidden in your heart, what are you fighting with? Like truly.”
How has Christian community helped your walk in general?
“I have no idea where I would be without Christian community. Accountability for one. And it is such a blessing that I never have to do anything in the dark. And yeah. Christian community has been… it’s what we were made for, so how can it not help me? So accountability, reminding me of truth, and love. I just think it’s a really beautiful thing that God has designed us to be in relationships. It’s so cool how in some of my friendships I have seen the pursuit of Christ. Literally an example that the Lord showed me yesterday was that some of my best friends are my dearest people and I couldn’t imagine my life without them. And umm one of my friends that I was praying for, I never want her to spend time with me out of a feeling of obligation or anything. I want her to hangout with me because she wants to. He reminded me that the same way that I want my friend to want to spend time with me because she wants to, he wants us to want to spend time with him, never out of obligation. Christian community has shown me so much more about my relationship with the Lord. And I could literally go on for hours about it.”
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