Frustrated, Lonely, and Hurt

At the age of 17, I became involved with the occult. Although I studied such practices as astrology, numerology, and the New Age movement, they never helped me in any way. However, I continued to learn more about them in order to escape the reality of my frustrated, lonely, and hurt-filled life.

As my interest in astrology grew, so did other things. After getting involved with the wrong crowd, I soon began doing some of their habits, such as drinking, cursing, and attending wild parties.

My life, furthermore, took a turn for the worse. Problem after problem just seemed to plague me. My brother died; my mother almost died; I flunked the 10^th grade; I inherited a respiratory disease; I became ill with pneumonia; I could not sleep at night because of demonic nightmares and strange senses of something being in my room at night; my parents got divorced; and the guy I liked at school was dating someone else. So, with many mixed feelings and thoughts going through my head, I tried to commit suicide. One reason why I did not succeed was because I thought that God would never forgive me if I killed myself.

Then one day, as I was watching television, a woman came on talking about the dangers of astrology. As I carefully listened to her describe the many symptoms she had gone through, I clearly recognized that I was going through the exact same symptoms. That is when I realized that astrology was not doing me any good. So I gathered all my books and zodiac charts and threw them away.

While experiencing all these problems, I had met a few people who were willing to help me with my circumstances. After a while, they invited me to a Bible study group. There, I learned that Jesus Christ died for all my sins and was resurrected three days later. But in order to have my sins completely forgiven and have eternal life with God, I had to personally put my trust in the fact that Christ actually did this for me. I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.

Since becoming a new creation, as 2 Corinthian 5:17 states, “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!” my life has become meaningful. I have peace, love, happiness, and the self-discipline that I did not have before. I no longer desire to drink, curse, attend wild parties, or become involved in the occult. Instead, I now desire to yield my life to Christ and be the kind of woman Christ would want me to become as Proverbs 31:30 states, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord she shall be praised.”

S.R.