Good morning, Church family. My name is Abby Bechtel, and this is my testimony. I grew up in a nominally Christian home. My family went to church on Sundays. We prayed before every meal and read the Children's Story Bible before bed. When I was five years old with my parents, I prayed a prayer that I didn't understand.

I recall asking for forgiveness of my sins and believing in stories I heard about Jesus Christ, but I don't count this as my moment of genuine salvation because at such a young age I didn't truly understand the depths of my sin. I didn't repent or put my faith in my Heavenly Father.

Throughout grade school and on, I continued living a life of sin. I confessed with my mouth that I knew Jesus Christ, but I was lost. My family situation worsened, and I took the burden of fixing it upon myself. I wanted to live the perfect life, to have the perfect parents, be the perfect student, and I thought I could live by my own strength.

I tried to hold it together. I was prideful. I was resentful. I was angry. I lied to those around me. I was bitter. I was a sinner, not seeking saving because I didn't recognize my need. I had no understanding of the width and depth of my sin and my desperate need of salvation.

My life revolved around myself and my family. I found security in my capability, and I sought for joy in the respect and admiration of others. This phantom of control came crashing down when I was around 13 years old. My parents' relationship was always rocky, and it was brought to the point where talk of divorce was circling.

And that cloud of ability that was around me disappeared, and I was left with just an empty feeling of anger. I didn't know where to turn to. But God used these trials in my life for His glory. My conversion was by no means immediate. After God showed me my incapability to fix my family, I turned to myself.

Achieving a certain grade, having enough people respect me, or living a comfortable life would do nothing to fix the hole in my heart. I had come to the point where I had exhausted the options that the world had to offer. For once in my life, I didn't know what to do.

It was then that I opened my Bible to Romans. I read Romans 5, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one would scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5, 6-8.

The truth of Scripture cut like a sword into my heart. I had never thought intently on the character of God and His love in contrast to my weakness. Over the next few weeks, I went back to reading Romans, examining who I was in respect to a holy God. My respectable sins as I saw them were an offense to Him.

Without Christ, without relationship with the one true God, my life was meaningless. All of those things were searching for fulfillment outside of Christ. I was a sinner in need of saving. God opened my eyes through that time to the sorrow that my sin caused Him. Scripture made the truth that I had known in my head, that Christ had atoned for my sins, that had eternally separated me from life with God, become a truth that was life-transforming.

Acts 3, 17-19. And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also. But the things which Christ announced beforehand by the mouth of the prophets, that Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

One evening that year, I sincerely prayed for forgiveness of my sins. It was then that I believed that Jesus, the Son of God, could save me from my sins. I knew that I fully deserved the just punishment and separation from God. I prayed that I would be dependent on God to define my life and my future.

It was then that I believed I received the free gift of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ. For this salvation, I praise God. He used trials in my life to show my sin to me. In His kindness and grace, He brought me to repentance. This is a story of how God rescued me from my sin.

He led me out of darkness, and by the sacrifice of His Son, I was justified. He is continuing to sanctify me, and I look towards the hope of being glorified with Him in eternity. Let me understand when you go into the water, you are united with Christ Jesus Christ.

Amen.