Gabriela

I was raised in the Catholic church, and grew up with the belief that if I attended mass services regularly, confessed my sins to a priest, took communion and prayed repetitive prayers for forgiveness and tried my best to be a good person I just might have a chance of getting to Heaven. My family went to church whenever they felt like it, mostly for weddings, infant baptisms, first communions and funerals. From an early age I felt drawn to God as if he was calling me. I enjoyed listening to hymns and worship music even though I couldn't understand most of it, and I greatly enjoyed hearing and learning about the Bible. My grandmother was very spiritual and I can remember her telling me stories about the creation, Adam and Eve's sin, Noah and the flood, God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, Joseph in Egypt, Moses and the exodus, Daniel and the lions' den, Job and his hardships, and of course Jesus's crusifiction, death and resurrection. When I turned 13 my family discovered that I could sing, and with great effort I came out of my shell and started singing in church which gave them a good reason to start attending more regularly. Music has always been a huge part of my life and soon after that my play lists began to change to only Christian music. A year later I discovered Christian radio and that was all I listened to. All I wanted to hear was worship songs and Bible sermons.
I started listening to a radio program where people shared their testimonies, sharing how their lives were transformed when they heard the gospel and were saved. For a few years, the message of the gospel bounced off my ears with no effect. I thought that those people had simply chosen to turn away from their sinful ways of life, leaned on God and started making good decisions. I didn't grow up listening to the gospel being preached so it was an entirely new concept to me. Scriptures like John 3:16, Romans 3:23 and 6:23, Romans 8:1, Ephesians 2:8/9 all became familiar to me. But it wasn't until one evening as I sat at my desk in a dorm room and heard the gospel again that it suddenly clicked in my mind and made sense. It was then that I started thinking for the first time, Jesus offers me salvation by grace through faith? Salvation is free? I can just place my faith in His finished work on the cross, acknowledge Him as my Lord and Savior and I can have assurance of salvation? That is it? It was then that I prayed to God, telling Him that if this was true, if there was nothing I could do to go to Heaven, if my salvation was available already if I put my trust in Him, then I wanted to be saved. If all I had to do was accept Him as my Lord and Savior, then I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. My views began to change and I let go of all of the beliefs I was raised with. It would still be a lot of years before my life would change significantly. I lacked proper guidance, discipleship and a church to attend. I made a few wrong choices and took a few wrong turns in my life, but through it all God has had infinite mercy on me and always brought me back to Him. I was alone when I accepted Him as my Savior. No one was there with me to walk me through any prayers or explain the gospel to me on a personal level. None of my family has yet chosen to let go of their traditional beliefs and accept God's free gift of salvation. But God Himself found me where I was, alone in a dormitory, and called me to Him. I will always be infinitely greatful for His love, His mercy and forgiveness. I choose Him because He chose me. I love Him because He loved me first and I will praise Him because even with all my flaws and imperfections, my constant sins and disobedience, He continues to love and forgive me.
My prayer is that my friends and family's eyes would also be opened, and that they too would understand and accept God's free gift of salvation that they can never attain on their own. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” John 3:16