Amelia's Testimony

Testimony
3-10-14
So today for my testimony I want to talk about being close to God. And while I know I’m only seventeen, throughout my life there have been good times and harder testing times.  So when things are going good for me it is easy to say how great God is and look at all the blessings and things He has done for me. When things are good I don’t question anything, I just know that it is all in God’s plan and I trust in that.

When things get bad though I’m ashamed to say that I feel like I become more and more distant from God, I start to take things into my own hands and fix them myself. I start to question why God would put me through these bad things; why me?!  I forget that everything has a reason.

A little while back I was driving on my way to swim practice and I was in one of those testing times and I was thinking oh how bad a situation I was in, and I remember feeling far from God, there is a church sign on the way there, the sign said “Feeling distant from God? Guess who moved.” This sign was terrifying when I saw it, my heart dropped. Just thinking that I was moving away from God scared me. At this moment I realized that I was blaming God when I was the one doing wrong; I was the one moving away! How could I get mad at God when he was just trying to help me? God tests me because he loves me. He tests me because he wants me to be stronger and love Him even more! See God just wants to be close to me, if I step away from it all and look in, God just wants something simple; he wants my love and my devotion.

In Deuteronomy it says, "For the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul," (Deut. 13:1-3).

I think sometimes that if I was God, and I had Heaven, who would I want there with me? I would want the people that were fully committed to me and weren’t going to stray. I wouldn’t want a house full of people that only loved me when they were getting something out of it. I would want the people that were always going to be with me and love me through everything, in good times and bad.
See, I shouldn’t just be fully in love with God when I get the blessings and I get what I want. I need to realize that God has a reason for everything he does, and that even when it seems I am getting nothing but testing from Him, I need to still be close with him and to pass my testing so that I can become stronger and more faithful to him. And I know that when I am focused on him and obeying Him and listening for His lead that I will be happier.

So in conclusion I need to realize to just focus on God and stay close to him, because when I stray and try to do my own thing it won’t be blessed. I have to realize that there is a reason for everything and that to be a true Christian I can’t pick and choose when it’s a good time to praise God; I have to praise him always. In happy moments, praise god. In difficult moments, seek God. In quiet moments, worship God. In painful moments, trust God. In every moment, thank God. -- Amelia