Salvation: How God Saved Me
In early 2022 I became a member of a reformed baptist church and still am a member of said church that has official membership. As part of the process you are to write out a short salvation testimony. Here is what I wrote (with last name redacted) and still attest to:
I grew up in an environment, where God and Christianity were nominally around, even going to church for seasons, yet never recall hearing a clear Gospel message, and believed like many that salvation was in some way, earned by doing more “good” than “bad”.
I was saved at the age of 19 and by this time in my life, had severe OCD which progressed since childhood. My whole day was a 24 hour compulsion. I’d wake up at 4 AM and feel hopeless and anxious, “having to” constantly keep going because my whole day was an anxious ritual. By God’s grace, He led me to a Bible Seminar and then a church (amazing grace to able to break away from my rigid routine.) and had fellowship with a minister. He explained to me how nothing I did could ever earn God’s favor and save me, that man, in and of himself is completely evil and without hope – but that, that is why Jesus died on the cross, paying what I owed to God, due to my sin, giving me His righteousness because of His great love. I understood intellectually, but being very self-righteous, then said that it was okay, I’d take hell because I deserve it. He looked at me strangely, then showed me Isaiah 55:8 and told me how wrong and different my thinking was from God’s. We went back and forth, he kept repeating the verse and then I “got it" or rather, God got me. Saved me, and I realized that I was righteous – Jesus made me righteous and to deny that gift would actually be evil, by going against God’s heart for me. It completely changed my outlook and hope in life.
Things did not change overnight, yet getting up the next morning, I thought to myself, “I’m still here…I’m still doing this same thing…but Jesus made me righteous, right? I can go to heaven now, right? Then I can keep doing this forever if I have to, because God saved me.” By God’s grace and mercy over 11 years now, things have not stayed the same; God has continued to sanctify me, give me a better understanding of who He is and how I am to live in love and obedience for His ultimate glory.