Ask And You Shall Receive
What evidence do we have that God is real? Our friend A shares an amazing testimony of how he went from a hardened atheist to a Christian when God miraculously answered his prayer in a time of need and saved his job against all odds.
What is God? Who is Jesus Christ? What is the meaning of spiritual warfare? If you asked me these questions six months ago, I would have told you that God is just some made-up character to keep people under control. He is there to instill fear in us, so we would stay morally correct. Jesus Christ is nothing more than a fictitious figure in a story book called the Bible. He is as real to me as Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings. And spiritual warfare? Plain old bad luck. When you are faced with a problem, closing your eyes and bowing your head to pray in order to make your problems disappear was just nonsense to me. That was what I believed, and my belief was firm, like how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So what am I doing writing a testimony on this Christian blog, you might ask? A miracle? Believe it or not, in the last few months, I have gained faith… enough to say with confidence that now I believe God, our Father, is undeniably real.
It all started in April of this year. It was a Saturday night and I was doing the usual late night drinking and partying at a club. But this time unlike any other nights, I was the designated driver. You can probably guess what happened next. Yes, I got pulled over for a DUI, and it was not my first, but second offense. The consequence of a second DUI was quite severe; it left a sizeable dent in my wallet: Court and lawyer fees, fines, and DUI school, all added up close to ten thousand dollars. Then I had to face five days of jail time. Not only that, my license also got suspended for two years. But these were somewhat benign compared to what I had to face next: the possibility of losing everything including my job, house, and car and ultimately, disappointing the people I love.
My financial burden is greater than most people my age. Not only do I need to support myself, but I also support my parents. After the family restaurant business failed just before I graduated from college, my parents had to file bankruptcy. Since then, my father has not had a job and my mother was only able to bring home less than a thousand dollars a month. So, the weight of providing for the family fell upon me, and keeping my job became vital to both me and my parents. I work as an internet sales manager at a car dealership. Our company has a zero tolerance policy for employees with a DUI record. Based on this, my prior coworkers have been fired as a result of a DUI. The thought of losing my job and not being able to support my family was unbearable. I felt as if I had hit rock bottom, and there was nothing I could do to make it right. I felt alone. I was so embarrassed for making such a huge, dumb mistake, I refused to tell anyone. Except one of my closest friends, who is a newborn Christian but used to be what I call a hardcore partier. He would party all the time and use alcohol and drugs to get high. Then one day he found God, and everything changed: On weekends instead of clubs, he went to church and fellowships. Instead of drugs, he relied on God’s love for his high. So I decided to talk to him about my situation and ask for help. Upon hearing me, he made a suggestion which seemed like nonsense at the time, but would change my life eventually. He told me to ask God to reveal Himself to me and ask for God’s grace to overcome this obstacle. At first I was skeptical, but out of respect, I told him I would give it a try. A couple of days later, I was having trouble falling asleep from all the stress. I tossed and turned for hours until I finally remembered what he had told me. In desperation, I did the unthinkable; I got up and started praying. “God, if you are really out there, please reveal yourself to me. Please save me from this mess. If you do this for me, I will believe that you are real.”
The next morning I woke up and nothing had changed. A week later, I was still feeling the same stress and anxiety as before. So I did the only thing I knew to help cope with my problems. I went out and got drunk. I even went out to the same club I was at the night I got my DUI. It was fun and gave me temporary relief from my troubles, but deep down inside I knew they were still there. A few days later, I texted a girl I met at the club that night. My original intention was quite typical, to ask her out on a date and possibly “hook-up” afterwards. Through a few text messages, however, I found out that she was actually a faithful Christian, and before I could ask her out, she asked me if I wanted to go to church with her. Normally, under no circumstance would I even consider going to church with a girl. But this time it was different. Besides feeling guilty of my motive, I felt maybe this was a sign from God, so I agreed. But for the next month and a half, we were both busy and could not figure out a time to meet up to go to church. So I thought, maybe I was wrong about the sign and wrong about thinking that God was trying to reveal Himself to me. That was until July 3rd, the day I got released from LA County Jail for serving my time for the DUI. Jail time, although only for a few days, was NO FUN to say the least. Then something unexpected happened: as soon as I got my phone back from the jail clerk and turned it on, I got a text message. It was from that same girl I was supposed to go to church with. Ah, ha! A light bulb went off over my head, I realized God had planned this for me, and this was exactly what I was supposed to do. For the very first time in my life, I went to church willingly. That day after service, I had an overwhelming feeling of comfort and peace, a feeling that I had not felt for months.
July 4th weekend ended great for me. Emotionally I was much more stable and I was able to finally get a couple days of good night’s sleep. But still, the monkey was not off my back. I still had to face the fact that I might lose my job when my company found out that my driver’s license was suspended. A few days later, the inevitable finally came. I was called into my boss’s office. As soon as I saw him he said, “What the hell, a DUI? You know you need a driver’s license to work here right?” I sat there speechless, ready to go back to my deck to clean out my belongings. But after he gave me the whole spill about being a responsible person he said, “I’m going to look the other way this time, but you better pray that the DMV does not touch your vehicle sales license.” A miracle, I thought. Immediately I felt my prayers were finally answered. I got to keep my job, I was still able to support my family, and finally got out of this ugly mess that had been haunting me. A miracle!
So I kept my promise to God to start attending church and church events on a regular basis. I took a genuine interest in other people’s faith and started seeking Him eagerly. I started praying every day. Slowly I realized that God was pursuing me, He was revealing Himself to me. For me to believe, God basically had to answer all my prayers, so He did—even a prayer as small and selfish as finding a parking spot on a busy street in downtown LA. I can go on forever about this but it would just sound too ridiculous. But believe me when I say this, for someone like me to believe God is real, ridiculous is what it was going to take, and ridiculous is what He did.
Life was good since I discovered God and my faith grew stronger by the day. But I recently encountered some obstacles that we call spiritual warfare and my faith was put to the test. First off, my ninety five year-old grandfather fell at home and was hospitalized. At the hospital they found a bleeding inside his skull and he was admitted to the ICU for observation. Although worrisome, through my and my friends’ prayers, he got better and was on his way to full recovery. Then the unexpected happened, the nurse fed him solid food when she was not suppose to. The food went down his trachea and blocked his airway, and this eventually sent him into cardiac arrest. Although he was revived right away, his condition worsened rapidly. At one point the doctor even told us that he was not going to make it because his brain function was not improving. Bitter, and angry, I questioned God for letting this happen, ‘why are you doing this to me when I have been so good to you?’ I kept my faith, however, realizing that all I could do at that point was pray for a miracle. After a series of ups and downs, my family and I realized that it was better to let my grandpa pass. It broke our hearts to see him suffer and we knew that he had grown tired of fighting. We understood that my grandpa lived a happy century (almost,) which was something to be grateful for in and of itself. With that, my prayers changed from asking God to heal my grandpa, to giving God control of the situation and asking that my grandpa be in peace, whatever the result may be. God answered my prayers. My grandpa passed peacefully. I have no resentment or bitterness surprisingly, as I know that this is the best outcome one could have asked for. This is the most unselfish thing one could be blessed with… peace for a loved one. Rather than focusing on what I wanted, I had to take a step back and think about what was best for my grandpa. Also, rather than focus on my grandpa’s suffering, I had to remember all the joyful and healthy years that he had lived.
My story isn’t over. I went to the DMV a couple of days ago to get my sales license renewed. When I saw the DMV clerk she asked me for a $51 non-refundable fee to apply for the renewal. At the same time she mentioned that I might not want to pay that fee because she had never seen anyone get issued a sales license with a DUI AND a suspended license on their record (I had both.) Under normal circumstances she would be able to issue me a temporary sales license, but because of my record, I was exempt. I begged her to try because my job depended on it. So she did. She walked away to speak to her manager for about ten minutes, and I prayed. Those were the longest ten minutes of my life. Miraculously, when she came back, she told me that the rule had changed! The new law stated that as long as I did not have any other criminal record, a vehicle sales license would still be issued. Based on this, I was approved sales license and she issued me a temporary license that same day. Halleluiah! God is real!
The point of this testimony is not to convince anyone to believe in God. If I read my own testimony six months ago, I would have thought either this person is full of it or it was just pure coincidence. I just wanted to share my story; how by simply asking God with an open heart to reveal Himself, I was able to find Him and overcome life’s obstacles that I could not have on my own. So if you find yourself struggling with life’s problems, or if you are just seeking God for whatever reason, try this: Pray. Pray for God to reveal Himself to you and you will see.
