My name is Kate Wallace, I’m 19 years old and currently on the Gold Coast, Australia. Today I’ll share with you a bit about my life, what God has done and is doing in me.

I was born into a Christian home and went to a Christian school. I was brought up going to Sunday school and learnt all the Bible stories. This was all great stuff, but it wasn’t what made me a Christian. These things aren’t what save us.

Becoming a Christian, which is a believer in Jesus, is a choice that each person must make for themselves. Just because our parents are Christians, it doesn’t make us Christians. Just like if my dad is a doctor, that doesn’t make me a doctor.

God has made it clear. There is only one way to Him, and that is through His son Jesus. In John 14:6 Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me. This means that there is no other way to God, except through believing on Jesus.

So as I grew up, I had learnt and knew about Jesus, but it wasn’t until I was about 10 years old that I truly believed on Him, and made a commitment to put my trust in Him.

After we believe on Jesus and what He did for us on the cross, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and are forever God’s children. Nothing we can ever do will separate us from Him. Jesus died for all our sin, and when we believe we are washed clean by Jesus’ blood, forgiven and made pure in God’s eyes.

When I was 15 my parents divorced, and some of you may have or will have to go through that too. It’s tough, but I can honestly say I am a stronger person because of it. God drew me closer to Him, and He is someone you can always rely on. People may fail you, but God never will. He’s promised that.

God can use the worst situations in our lives and turn them around for His greater purpose when we put our trust in Him. Romans 8:28 says And we know [that means we can be sure of it. Not maybe.] that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

It’s hard for us as humans to understand, but our lives aren’t meant to be an opportunity for us to fulfill our own desires and purposes, but instead to be drawn back to God our Father, and seek His will in our lives. God wants us to put Him first in our lives, so that by using the gifts and talents He has given us, we will serve and praise Him in what we do, bringing glory to His name.

In my life, I’ve had to learn the lesson of full reliance on God, and to not try and do things in my own strength. God has promised to be our strength, and He is far more powerful than anything we may come up against in our lives.

After my mum and dad divorced, I went through a pretty rough stage in my heart, and it was like I was battling inside myself between deciding to do things my way or God’s way. And I made many mistakes by choosing my way over God’s.

For the next couple of years, although I was still saved, because once you are saved, nothing can change that, I wasn’t living in a way that was bringing glory to God or being a good example to my non-Christian friends. God has called us to shine as lights unto the world, and live in a way that might draw others to Him. And I wasn’t.

But what’s amazing about God is that He still loved me. Even as sinners, He still loves us. Romans 5:8 says But God commands His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

When we talk about God sending His son to die for us, it’s important to consider how massive that really is. If you don’t already, imagine you have kids of your own. How much would you have to love someone to give your child’s life for them? Your only child’s life, so that they may live. Now we aren’t talking about any someone. Let’s say this person was the most filthy, rotten criminal on the planet. Would you send your son to die for them?

It’s pretty incredible when you actually stop and try to comprehend how amazing God’s love is for all of us. Because we are all sinners. The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You may not have killed someone, may not have robbed a bank, but who hasn’t told a lie? Taken something that wasn’t theirs? Had a bad thought about someone? We all have.

Now although to us these things may not seem as bad as murder, God sees all sin as the same and none of us are cleaner or better than the other. Even the nicest, Church-going, charity-giving person won’t ever reach the standard God requires in Heaven.

There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. As it says in Ephesians 2:8, 9 For by grace are you saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

But the great part is that God hasn’t left us to die in our sin, without a way of returning to Him. Sin separated us from God, but Jesus’ death on the cross built the bridge between us and God, so that we may now enter into a relationship with Him. John 3:16 says For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This means that if we believe on Jesus and his paying the price for our sin by dying for us on the cross, we will be saved. God doesn’t want us to die in our sin. He wants to save us. He has provided the way, now we need to make the decision to follow Him.

In the past couple of years, God has really been challenging me and teaching me plenty of lessons. As I’ve grown closer to Him through praying and reading the Bible, I’ve been focusing on putting Him first in my life, rather than what I want. And it has been amazing how God reveals himself and helps me every single day. My outlook on life has changed, in that now instead of seeing the things that go wrong in my life as problems, I see them as opportunities to prove God’s faithfulness of helping me through them.

Giving problems over to God and not holding on to them is like lifting a huge weight off your shoulders. And though I’m the kind of independent person who likes to do things on my own, I’ve found it far better talking to God about what’s going on and committing things over to Him instead.

Because I am weak without God. And that’s total truth. We are weak in ourselves, but strong in the Lord. By putting my faith and trust in God, it’s been incredible to see how He has changed me from the inside out, and what He has done in my life.

Matthew 6:33 says Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. It’s not easy to put God first, but we should continually strive to. When you seek God and put Him first in your life, you’ll find that everything else will take care of itself, and you’ll be blessed in amazing ways. Maybe it won’t be through money or fame, but those things won’t last anyway.

Psalm 103:15-17 says As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him and His righteousness.

We are here for a short time. We might live for 80 years, perhaps even longer, and that may seem like a long time to you now, but it will go fast. Yet God and His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. That’s forever.

In a couple of weeks I’m going to Bible College over in America. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, to gain a greater depth of understanding of the Bible and learn how to effectively share the Gospel. God has placed this on my heart and it’s exciting to have the opportunity to go over and study God’s word so that I’ll be prepared for whatever He wants me to do in life.

The college I’m going to is called New Tribes Bible Institute, a part of New Tribes Mission. NTM have Bible and missionary training centres in different countries and they help support missionaries who are living in tribes overseas, particularly in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. God willing I’ll be able to go on a few overseas missions trips, and may end up living overseas too.

There’s a passage that really speaks to my heart from Romans 10:11-14. For the scripture says, whosoever believes in Him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall the call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they call on Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

How are people going to know about God if they’re not told? Of course it is only God through the Holy Spirit that works in peoples’ hearts, but God can use us, and gives us the ability to share the Gospel with others. And in fact, He has called us, as believers to tell others the good news of salvation. In Mark, Jesus said to Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.

I’d like to encourage you today, if you have not yet believed on Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, don’t put it off. If you’re not trusting in Jesus and what God has provided, which was sending His son to pay the death penalty of our sin by dying for us on the cross, that by believing on Him, we might be saved, then you are trusting in yourself, and you’re missing out. And you will miss out forever.

God wants you to return to Him. He loves you. Talk and pray to Him sincerely and He will make himself known and reveal Himself to you. If you feel God through His Holy Spirit knocking on your door, don’t ignore it. Receive God’s gift and believe on Jesus, and you will be saved. God will open your eyes, work in your heart and change your life in ways you can’t imagine.

For those who have believed and received Jesus as their Saviour, I want to encourage you to walk with Him boldly and live as an example to your family and your friends, that they may see God’s love in you and through that, it might bring others to Him.

A passage I’d like to leave you with today is from Philippians 4:6-8. Be careful for nothing, [worry about nothing] but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Set your focus on God, put Him first and He will bless you in big ways, because God’s plans for us are going to be far better than any plans we may have for ourselves.

2nd August 2010

Kate Wallace

Editor’s comment:

Katie gave the above testimony in a speech addressing to 120 Grade Six students in an elementary school. Her true accounts of her childhood and growth in the turmoil years of youth really displayed a life so fragile yet that has been sowed in His good soil, even through the stormy blast, it still stands firm in His grace and His love.

So, reader, this is the time to contemplate about your life. Would you open your heart and allow the gospel seed planted inside your heart of good soil? Let your true Sower and Farmer work in you as you rest in His Word, even in time of hardship, think of it as His Hand trimming and pruning so to make you grow into that good fruit which according to His good pleasure will produce a 100 fold.