Giving up to God

The following is a recent testimony from a student in our group of the amazing work of God and how incredible it is to have Him take hold and control of tough situations in life. The hardest step in the toughest of times is to give up control and hand the situation over to God but like this student describes the results are incredible.

OK, to be honest I haven’t been myself lately. In fact, I’ve been totally depressed and I’m sure that everyone whose been around me has noticed that. There were many reasons for this, but its still no excuse for all of my apathy. God has put me through a very very huge gigantic mammoth sized test in the past month and at first i felt like I’ve failed him. I let myself slip into a stage that i really hated and regret. However, thanks to many of my trustworthy friends, and the counseling I've had with them, I’ve been able to understand how to overcome this dark time. Like many others, this test for me has been difficult and I should have right away reached out for God instead of letting myself drift away. Because I let all these heavy burdens get to me it has ruined some of my recent retreats and activities. But as of now, July 6, 2009 I have overcome this challenge and have begun to restore my flame for God. I realized that I needed to give it all up to him, and even though i constantly told him, I guess it wasn't enough. Today, every possible thing that I planned went wrong, and a lot of stress engulfed me. but I spent about an hour and a half on the roof just talking to God, and it started out by seeing the worst possible situation. then I began to see that I don't want it to turn out like that, and if really am the leader that I thought I was, I have to get over this and start to make things right again. And it wasn't easy to come to this resolution, but the first thing I did was fix the screwed up relationship I made with my brothers. I went to them and humbled myself before them and God, and apologized. I apologized for all the wrong things I’ve done and all the things that seemed wrong to them. Lucky for me that they let me turn off the TV and listened. And I thought I was going to get shut down, it’s amazing what the Holy Spirit can do. Anyway, for twenty minutes I had a conversation with them and it was great, I think I finally made things right between me and my brothers, and it feels good. At the end of it we hugged (which is an extremely rare thing) and made up for all the bad things that happened in the past. And now, I finally feel relieved from my constant stress and pain, and its all thanks to God. During that hour and a half prayer, I gave it all up to him, and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and face (that’s another story). But I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m back and I feel wonderful. I don’t know who’s going to read this, or even if they give a care, but if you do could you pray for me, I really could use it. And if anyone else is going through a tough time, and I know there is, allow me to let you in on a little secret. GIVE IT UP! If you really want to get rid of this pain give it up to God. I’m not saying the problems are just going to go away like magic, but God will lift the weight and help you carry it. Anyway, that’s all I want to say, and maybe many many things can come from this hard time I just went through. Maybe it can inspire somebody to come to God and Jesus Christ, maybe it can help some of you get through a tough time you’ve been going through, maybe I’ll use this twenty years from now as I’m preaching at a small youth group or a big music festival and have many people led to Christ. There are infinite possibilities, but even if it only helps one person, just one person. I’m glad I went through the pain to help that one person.