A Start In My New-Found Faith
My name is Benjamin and I’m 18 years. Having grown up in church, I was exposed to the Lord’s Word since an early age. This was both a good and bad thing for me as even though I knew the stories and lessons in the bible, I never knew God on a personal level and labelled myself a Christian only because I attended church. As I grew older, I experienced and was drawn in to the ways of the world. This ultimately led to me being more attracted to world and slowly drifting away from the Lord. However, since my entire family attends Bethany, there was no way for me to stop attending church and as a result living a double life where the way I behave inside and outside church were drastically different. Faith was not something real to me and neither was it something I cared about. I hung around the wrong group of friends hoping I could experience the “fun” side of life where I thought vulgarities, violence and parties were cool. My heart had become hard and the sin had ruled over my life. However, I thank God for not giving up on me during those horrific days.
During those years, there would be instances where I’d question my actions and ask myself if what I was doing was really “cool” and ok, and if I’d made God very angry. Those moments would make me consider trying to be a better Christian and stop my ways. Looking back at the times I questioned my actions, I see it as God’s mercy in not allowing my heart to harden completely. However, change only started to progress faster towards the end of 2017 where I remember Intern Pastor Ben Chong telling me that in order to change, I must first remove all things hindering that change, whether it was friends or the activities I enjoyed. This was difficult for me to do, as I wasn’t ready to give up everything to follow the Lord. Nevertheless it was something worked on.
With this new mindset and desire to change, I headed to Perth the year after to do a foundation year and thankfully, my time in Perth has been fruitful. This was where God and faith became more real to me and where my interest in the Lord and His word grew larger and larger. I thank God especially for Bethel and her people as I was supported and taken care of so well by everyone. Pastor Chris had helped and encouraged me throughout the year with problems I faced and questions I didn’t know. Through all this, faith became real to me as I learnt to depend on His strength in every circumstance. Naturally, reaffirmation was something I continued to consider as the year progressed and now have finally taken the step to be reaffirmed.
I have chosen to be reaffirmed this Christmas as I would be enlisting for national service next year. With that in mind, I want to be able to stand firm and proud in my belief in the Lord. Reaffirmation is just a start in my new found faith in the Lord and there is definitely much more to be learnt with each passing year and this is something I’m looking forward to.
Written by Benjamin Poey