“Amazed By Grace”
I am Alycia Cruse: a third generation missionary married to a third-generation preacher, raising 3 beautiful children in the heart of our nation, Washington DC, as we minister to those who affect us most – our leaders on Capitol Hill. When I’m not doing laundry to pack for our next deputation meeting, or wiping runny noses and kissing scraped knees, I enjoy writing on my devotional blog – www.becominghermoments.home.blog. I love my husband passionately and thank God every day that I get to serve Him alongside my best friend.
“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25
Have you ever stopped and thought of your personal salvation testimony?
I learned in college that your testimony is the most powerful thing you have. It is? Yes! Because it is the story of something supernatural, miraculous! Your repentance and turning of mind to Christ and his work on the cross for you is the same message by which others may be saved. What a gift!
When I was 5, I made a profession of faith but never felt sorry for anything I had done, because what had I done? It wasn’t until I was 13 that the Holy Spirit’s work in my heart brought me to a place of conviction and repentance. I knew I had not been living a life that was anticipating growing in Christ, because I did not have those desires!
My faith deepened two years later when I surrendered to commit my life to serving God in full-time ministry. I no longer had a desire to pursue a career once I attended college back in the states. Eternal worth was what I saw demonstrated in my parents’ lives and it was exactly what I wanted to prioritize in my own life.
Now I am a missionary myself, living by faith, depending upon God to meet our needs and seeking to use each daily conversation as a way to share my testimony of God’s saving grace. When we work diligently for God, spreading the powerful Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can be sure of a counterattack by God’s enemy, Satan. He has brought doubts into my mind – Since you didn’t do many bad things, what did you repent of? …did you even repent? …are you even saved? …how can you witness to others if you are unsaved yourself?
My friend, the devil is the accuser of the brethren. He causes us to doubt God’s facts. How sweet it is to revisit that special moment in my life, when God not only forgave my past but he changed my future. It also helps me to reaffirm my salvation – it was God’s work not mine! I used to be discouraged that my testimony wasn’t as amazing as others, being saved from a lifestyle of sin, and the change of salvation being so visible in their life. But the same saving grace it took to reach down and rescue those from a dark past, is the same saving grace it took to save me from a dark future! My future without Christ would have been so dark – seeking my own path, blindly walking, groping with no light to find happiness.
Jesus Christ my joy. He saved me. He changed my future. I will get to walk every day in the beauty of our nation’s Capitol, speaking and praying with those whose jobs determine so many things in our lives. I am amazed at His grace of saving me from my sins. But oh, how I am even more amazed at His grace for my future!
Your future is bright in Christ. Keep seeking Him, keep thanking Him for His grace in your past, and be amazed at His grace for your future!