As I face the challenges that life andsociety throw at me I try really hard to hand them over to God saying "Father, please do this in me because I can't do it alone!"
Alison recalls the surprising effect of death on her faith
I watched my step-father take his final breath after a very short battle with pancreatic cancer.
I really thought that after losing somebody so dear to me (apart from my sister when I was 10 years old) my faith would be shattered and I would turn away from God. In actual fact it had the totally opposite effect.
I experienced my step-fathers soul leave his body and he was all of a sudden at peace. I found myself very confidently and calmly reassuring him that the Lord was holding out his hand to him, to follow the light and take it. It was an experience I will never forget.
My faith grows stronger each day. As I follow the path to knowing God and his word, He strengthens me with the Holy Spirit.
I am a very active member of a wonderful church community and pray each day for the Lord's guidance - guidance to live and share his word in all that I do. There is no life without sin and I do not get things right all of the time but I strongly believe that God wants me to care, love and protect the people I come into contact with, through Him.
As I face the challenges that life andsociety throw at me, I try really hard to hand them over to God saying "Father, please do this in me because I can't do it alone!"
My testimony is as above; my experiences are from a real relationship I feel I have with God and His people. God has helped me through different stages of my life and strengthened me through some of my most difficult times. He has helped me make decisions about the way my life is going, even when I have been wanting to follow another road.
I can't say there has ever been a time when I have been disappointed with God's guidance and accept that sometimes we do not get the answers we would like straight away but need to wait patiently for the right outcome, quite often when we least expect it.
As I am writing this, I have picked up a lovely gift from friends, a book called 'The Prayer of Jabez'. I open it up to a random page and I read...
"When was the last time God worked through you in such a way that you knew beyond doubt God had done it?"
In my opinion, he is doing it everyday!