Before Jesus Changed My Life

Before Jesus changed my life, I struggled with my own brokenness. There were times I felt completely lost and didn’t know how else to deal with the pain I was carrying. I thought if I could just keep everyone around me happy and be perfect all the time, maybe I’d finally feel okay. In relationships, I kept trying to prove myself by being who I thought people wanted me to be instead of who God made me to be. But no matter how hard I tried, it never filled the emptiness — it just left me more drained and broken inside.

How Jesus Changed My Life

I was raised Catholic and come from a predominantly Catholic family, and I’m grateful for the foundation of faith that was built into me from a young age.  As I grew older, my relationship with God began to deepen in a way that looked different from how I was raised. My relationship with Jesus was becoming more personal, and I was learning to walk with Him in a way that was unique to my own journey. What really pushed me to trust Jesus was the realization that I couldn’t fix myself. I, in my own strength, couldn’t carry the weight of my brokenness, relationships, and tension on my own.  So, I confessed to God that I couldn’t do this on my own, I needed Him in my life. I trusted that I was a broken, imperfect sinner and that Jesus died for my sins. I prayed, asking Him to forgive me and be the one in charge of my life. That was the turning point for me, when it stopped being about trying harder to be “perfect” and started being about trusting Him and His work on my behalf.

My Life After Jesus Saved Me

Now that I’m walking with Jesus, my life looks really different. I still have struggles, but I don’t fight them alone anymore. Instead of turning to my old ways, I’ve learned to bring my pain and stress straight to God. When anxiety hits, I can remind myself of scriptures like Psalm 23. This has become one of my favorite passages in the Bible as it reminds me that no matter what I go through, He is always with me. My hope now is in Jesus. Not in how well I perform or how others see me. When I’m going through hard times, I turn to Him and His Word, and I’ve seen Him give me comfort and strength I could never create on my own. I’m learning that my identity is in who God says I am, not in what people think of me. One verse that keeps shaping me right now is 2 Corinthians 12:9, where God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It reminds me that I don’t have to be strong all the time, I don’t have to have it all figured out — His strength shows up in my weakness. I know that because of Jesus, my sins are forgiven and my eternity is secure. No matter what happens in this life, I have hope and peace knowing I have eternal life through Him.