Romanda Jordan

I came to Christ when I was around seven years old, but it took a long time for me to understand that faith is not about rules but relationship.

My mother didn’t take me to church – she put me on one of those vans that pick kids up. She grew up going to church, and for her, it was only ritual. I sat with an older lady in the church, up in the front row. She was a tiny, white lady, and she treated me like I was her family.

One day, as we say in the front row, I told her I wanted what the preacher was talking about. She took me up to the altar and we knelt there together as I received Jesus as my Savior.

I wanted the comfort and the security that God’s love promised. There was a hole in my life, and it had a lot to do with the fact my parents were divorced, and my earthly father wasn’t around. I heard about the love of the heavenly Father, and I wanted that love to fill the hole in my life.

For many years, I continued to go to church by myself. I thought of myself as a good person. I thought if I followed the Golden Rule, and lived by the commandments, and was a good person, that would be enough.

Of course, I was wrong.

When I went to college I started living less of a Christ-centered life. I went through a period where I wasn’t reading the Bible. I hadn’t learned how to relate the Scriptures to my life, and make them applicable to the things that were happening to me.

I started going back to church and found tranquility. I learned that faith isn’t about being good and following the rules – it’s about a relationship with Jesus. I started to grow in my relationship with Him, and now it’s building and building and building. The Lord keeps taking me to new heights. I haven’t been perfect, and I’m not perfect, but God has been gracious to me all my life.

I thought about God’s love for me, and the sacrifice He made, sending His only Son to die for me. I belong to God. Every day I can wake up and say “Abba, Father”, and give myself to me, and feel His fatherly love.

I knew I would need to forgive my earthly father. His sins really weren’t any different than mine. I knew God had forgiven me, and I could take that same forgiveness and extend it to my earthly father, who really hadn’t been involved in my life.

I had begun to pray about finding a way to forgive my earthly father when he called me. It was the first time I had spoken with him in many, many years. My earthly father told me he had received Jesus as His Savior within the last year, and he had been praying that the lines of communication between us would be open.

Now the dialog between my earthly father and myself is open, and I’m continuing to ask God to lead me in the relationship.

I’ve learned to lean on God, and just let go. He is my Father who loves me and I don’t have to be distressed or worry about things that might or might not happen. He knows what is best for me, and I simply follow His lead.

It’s been a long journey from the day when I knelt with the little, old lady to where I am today, and God’s been working on my heart all along, as I know He always will.

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