The Love of God which Saved Me from Pride and Self-righteousness
Jeremy, 3rd Congregation
Dear family and friends, thank you for coming to witness my water baptism. My life as a Christian is a journey of defiance, of defeat, and of redemption. I’ve always been a man with much pride and self-righteousness. I was proud that I was born in a Christian family, that I am automatically saved by God and will go to heaven. I was proud of my “so-called” knowledge of the Bible, where I would skip Bible studies thinking that I already knew the answers. I would shun away from serving in church, because I didn’t see what more I could gain out of it. I thought I was an A+ Christian, that I was complete.
Along the way, a series of strenuous friendships brought turbulence into my life. I lost best friends, buddies, my playmates. I no longer had control of the things I cherished. The tipping point came during a broken courtship, where I thought that we could be the A+ Christian couple. After many quarrels and much hurt, I almost caused her to leave her Christian faith. I tried to patch things up, I tried to regain control, but it only got worse.
I was shattered. I was defeated. But it made sense. How am I to love another person, if I did not know Love Himself.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8)
Truly, God is the perfecter of selfless, unconditional love. There is no greater act of love, than God sending his beloved son Jesus Christ down from heaven to die for our sins, so that we may live and be reunited with Him.
Since then, I embarked on a journey to cast out my pride, to ground myself in the Christian community and to relearn the foundations of my faith.
In conclusion, my testimony could be about how I learnt to love, or how I gave up control of my life and trust God. But beyond that, my testimony is really a story about the sweet, sweet love of God, of how He pursued after me when I was lost, and how He loves this defiant and undeserving sinner called Jeremy who has placed his trust in Jesus.