What can separate us from the love of Christ? Can abuse? Cancer? Our own waywardness? May Hephzibah's story open your eyes to God's faithful pursuit in every single season of life—even in our darkest moments.
I started to study the Bible, and it came alive to me in a different way.
HEPHZIBAH'S STORY
"I found Dr. Youssef on a radio station at around age 6, shortly after my family moved to the United Kingdom. Our parents left a radio in our room, and one evening, after stumbling across Premier Christian Radio, I became hooked. I knew in my heart that night that I wanted to live uncompromisingly for Christ.
"A few years later, at around age 10, I found a Bible and fell in love with the Scriptures. It would be a tough summer of physical, emotional, and psychological abuse. . . . and I stopped reading the Bible shortly afterward. I rediscovered your teaching on Premier Radio once again as a teenager after my dad bought me a radio for my birthday. My first inclination was to hit the radio station in search of what had been my safe place. My life lit up as I began to once again enjoy your teaching, along with others I loved, before and after school. In those days, I relinquished my attachment to secular music and began to see the way Satan uses entertainment to trap people in [sinful] lifestyles. I fell back in love with Jesus, relishing reading my Bible as a teenager but still not being able to commit fully to Christ—and I didn't understand why.
"After going off to university, tragedy struck as my brother's cancer returned. I soon found myself destabilized again. After his condition became terminal, I fasted and prayed for months. He passed away when I was 20 years old.
"Five years later, I started to rebuild spiritual intimacy with God—but looking back, I still wasn't fully reconciled with Him. However, this time I knew why. For God to see me and for me to trust Him completely—it scared me. I dreaded the intimacy.
"Years later, as a young mom, I suddenly began to experience a surge of same-sex thoughts. . . . I sought healing ministry and, for the first time in my life, felt clean and healed. One day, after dropping my daughter off at school and returning home, I turned on the TV and guess who was on? Dr. Michael Youssef. I couldn't believe it. My mind went back [to that season], and I realized this could be my opportunity to return to God. I clung to Dr. Youssef's series Rebuilding Our Broken Walls and his messages about the fruit of the Spirit—and started listening to his messages every night. It was as if God was talking directly to me.
"As I listened, I was being convicted of so much Biblical error. I clung to your messages for dear life. I started to study the Bible, and it came alive to me in a different way. Through the healing ministry I experienced, the spiritual weight of the abuse was gone, but through your messages, my mind was healed. It took me back to age 6, looking out the window as your messages played, feeling safe and loved by an Almighty God for the first time.
"As I sit here now, my home is changed. My children genuinely love God and know Jesus even at their young age. This is the first time I have felt true peace in my life—and your messages have been a huge part of that. I thank God for the testimony that is still being written."
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