Ryan Moore’s Testimony
I was raised in the church. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t going to church. I went to Sunday School, AWANA, a Christian school. When I was four I accepted the Lord during the Easter story at school. I was so excited. But something never really clicked for me. I was a pretty good kid I thought and I even enjoyed going to church and learning from God’s Word. I learned a lot through those years. But as I entered high school things started to go wrong. Teenagers are typically rebellious and so was I. One way I rebelled against my parents was my disinterest in church. I started to resist going and made a point of showing my disdain for being there when I did go. One of my biggest problems was that I didn’t have friends who were any different. No one to encourage me in a different direction. We had all grown apathetic after being in completely Christian environment for so long and at that point I cared more about what my friends thought than what my parents thought. I got involved in a lot of things during high school, drinking and some drugs included. It had become apparent that I was no child of God to everyone but me. In the back of my mind I still believed there was a God and that He didn’t like how I was living, but somehow I was able to keep doing what I was doing, foolishly thinking I could just repent later, maybe in college. Looking back I know I wasn’t really a believer because of the direction my life had taken. I was not being sanctified, I was only getting worse, drifting further from the truth. Well college came and I didn’t change, my new freedom only gave me more opportunities for sin. I continued the way I was going for most of my first year. But then through a particularly frightening experience God woke me up. He had my attention and He humbled me in a big way. Completely broken I realized I needed a Savior. In tears I prayed for God to save me from myself. And He did. My heart was changed in an instant that night. I still had behaviors and other things I needed to cut out of my life and would continue to struggle with, but my desires had completely changed. I wanted those things out of my life and God enabled me to remove them. Sanctification is a lifelong process while we’re still in the flesh, but I can see that process taking place through God’s work in my life.
