Before my life was radically transformed by God’s mercy and grace, my state of being was alienation from Him. I have always believed that He existed because I was taught that from my parents beginning at an early age. However, my understanding was darkened by my ignorance of the reality that He and I were enemies. While I never considered that to be so didn’t negate the fact that it was true. It wasn’t until I was living in despair and without hope of overcoming my addictions to alcohol and gambling that I was ready to come into agreement with the reality that we were adversaries. I am grateful that He had already initiated the solution to my dilemma through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection from death. All I had to do was believe it and His grace gave me the faith to do that. Now He is my Heavenly Father and there is no more important relationship I have with anyone. I thank God frequently for sending someone who shared the gospel with me and helped me take the step of faith that reconciled us back together.
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21
"It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Ephesians 2:8-10