Finding the Real Thing
Have you ever really longed for someone to love and accept you just the way you are? Not because of the way you look or act or how funny you may be—but the real you—the person you are when you’re all alone and no one’s watching.
In high school, I tried to find that kind of love and acceptance through friends. But to be liked by most people that age, you had to be popular, pretty, on the cheerleading squad, have a cute boyfriend, and make good grades. I didn’t quite measure up to those standards and the more I tried to be like other people, and be liked by them, the more lonely I felt. Many times it seemed to me as if I were two different people—the one people liked and the one people didn’t even know about. I really wished someone would love me for the person I was deep inside. But instead, I continued to act and dress the way people wanted me to so I could gain and keep their acceptance.
I went to church all this time but my relationship with God was pretty dicey. I thought He was like many of the people I knew—that He approved of me when I did things that pleased Him but then turned the other way when I didn’t live up to His expectations. So I continued to try to live a good life and go to church so I’d hopefully please Him as well.
When I went away to college, I met a girl who was from my hometown. She invited me to a meeting for people interested in hearing more about Christ. I was curious as to what Christ had to offer college students so I went. I met a new group of people who seemed different from those I’d known before. They seemed to really care about one another and I felt they accepted me as well. Something else that caught my attention was the way they talked about Jesus Christ as if He were really alive and not just some historical, religious leader who lived and died 2,000 years ago. As I grew to know them better, I discovered that they were really sincere and were people just like me, who had studied the life and claims of Christ and had come to the conclusion that He really was who He claimed to be—the Son of God.
I started reading the Bible on my own and in there I found some remarkable things. It said that God knows everything about me. He knows my innermost feelings and even the number of hairs on my head! In spite of all the hidden things in my heart—both good and bad—that He sees, God still loves me with a perfect love. And if I opened my heart up to Jesus, He would come into my life and never, ever leave me – this was the love my heart had been aching for!
Well, that was all I needed to hear. So one evening 38 years ago I asked Jesus Christ to forgive my sins and come in as my Savior and Lord. For the first time I knew without a doubt that I didn’t have to earn God’s love—that He loved and accepted me just as I was and that as His child now, He’d never leave me. This gave me a new freedom and peace, and as I’ve grown to know Him more, He’s helped me to love and accept other people with that kind of love as well. His love and total acceptance gave me a confidence to trust Him in new situations and with new people that He brings into my life. I know that I may lose a lot of things, especially as I get older, but one thing I will never lose is His love for me! –and that’s what truly counts in this life and in the next!
Jesus said “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” He’s given me the freedom to experience all of God’s love for me, and He can do the same for you!