Living Life (1) Testimony - Grace Kwack
My name is Grace Kwack and I will be sharing with all of you how the Living Life Bible Study course has changed my life.
I had the opportunity to attend the Living Life Bible Study every Tuesday night for the past 13 weeks. Truthfully, in the beginning when I heard that there was going to be an official bible study, I was a bit hesitant as to whether I should go or not. This was mostly because I was so busy with school and applying to universities at that time. I thought that I would not be able to manage everything and that it would only add more stress to my life. However in the end, I made the decision to go; mainly because I will be graduating this year and I knew that it would be spiritually helpful for me before going into university.
If I were to sum up my life before taking this class in one word, it would most likely be: STRESS. I was constantly worried and anxious about university applications, scholarships, getting good grades, and just keeping myself together as I tried to manage everything going on in my life. I knew that God was always with me yet I turned to him only when I ran out of options.
On the first day of bible study, I felt pretty intimidated because 1. I found out that there were only three people attending (including me) and 2. Because I was the only student; everyone else was an adult. That got me very worried and scared because I knew from the start that my knowledge about the bible was not great at all and I did not want to embarrass myself in front of anyone.
However throughout the 13 weeks, I was able to learn many new things and experience the life of a true Christian. I became aware of the fact that we do not have the ability to love consistently but God does. Truthfully, throughout all of my stressful situations, I never looked to God first; he was always my last resort. So whenever I had a test or an exam, I was stressed and tried to get through it on my own. But I came to realize through this bible study, that even when we push God away to focus on ourselves and what we find to be our first priority, he is still holding onto us. Love becomes meaningful when we have a choice and I was blessed by understanding that God chose to love me even with all of my doubts, and provided me with help without my request.
After completing the bible study, I realized that from the beginning of the course, my mind set was wrong. I was not able to grasp the fact that this bible study was taking place in order for people to learn about the bible and learn about God. Instead, I saw it as a place where people would be able to show off and prove to others about how much they knew about the bible. Obviously I was wrong and after this, I was able to understand how much God loves me and wants the very best for me. I could tell the difference in myself because I started to feel extremely comfortable and at peace whenever I came to church on Tuesday evening. That feeling of nervousness I felt in the beginning all disappeared.
I was reminded again that God is always reaching out to us with open arms, but it is our decision to choose whether we want to hold his hand or not. I think that even though I accepted Jesus as my savior before this bible study, I did not completely understand the truth; which was that God chose to love us with all our flaws. Even though I pushed him away when I was dealing with stress, he was still leading me from behind.
Living Life Bible Study has really helped change my perspective on life and I gained a lot of wisdom and much more knowledge about God as well as the bible through every lesson. Now, I am able to find happiness in the smallest things, and my life is very meaningful and stress free. I hope that my story can motivate and inspire many of you to consider taking this course and also have a life changing experience.
