I have always known God for as long as I can remember and although I haven’t always walked with His path, He has never left my side. I was raised going to church at a very young age and even went to catholic schools up until the 6th grade, my parents did their best to point me in the right direction but as we all know our parents can’t find God for us, we have to seek Him for ourselves.

I got married at the age of 25 and then kids came shortly after. My wife was also brought up in the church and has loved the Lord for longer than I’ve known her, she is the glue that holds the pieces of our family together, and she’s truly a gift from God. In my 30’s my wife and I had great jobs, which helped provide a solid foundation for our family, a nice house, cars, and extras that come with financial stability but out of all the things that God had blessed us with, I clearly lost my way. I was living of the world doing worldly things with no regards as to the consequences of my actions, you couldn’t tell me anything. I did whatever I wanted when I wanted and regardless of my sins, God never left me and neither did my wife.

Around ten years ago I had a wakeup call from God, He decided that since I was out of control He needed to get my attention to bring me back to His path, He put me in a situation to where I had a choice, to serve Him or continue down the path of self-destruction. I was in great shape because I exercised regularly and ate healthy, I felt like I was invincible then one day I had a freak accident, I was lifting a box of ceramic tile at home moving it out of the way then all of a sudden a disc slipped out of place in my back, the box may have been 30 pounds but keep in mind, I worked out with 225 lbs every other day. Needless to say I ended up having surgery 3 times on my back and the last one I had to get a fusion, this is when they remove a portion of your vertebrae then fuse the rest back together then add rods and screws to hold it in place, because of this, I lost my job. What was I to do; we had a two-income home and bills on one income almost instantly. Why did this happen and where was God. What was I to do and with just the financial struggles alone and loosing lots of my worldly possessions I felt like my world was going to end, we lost almost everything except for our house and our family.

To my realization, God had been with me the whole time He never left; He was just testing me to see if I still had faith in Him and not my worldly possessions and ways, He had to get my attention before I destroyed my soul. I started going back to church and praying like I knew how too, like what God asks us to do. I had to evaluate my situation and rely on my faith in Him to help restore my family and I, I had to repent for my sinful ways and ask for God’s forgiveness. Yes the process takes time because God does things on His time and not ours, one thing that I can guarantee is that when He does, it’s always right on time.

Now fast forward to the present day 2016, I have continued my quest in walking with the Lord, I am an active member in our church and God continues to walk with me. My faith has grown stronger over the years and it’s because of prayer and truly believing that God will bring us through the storm. I’ve witnessed the miracles of God first hand through my family and the storms we’ve been through. Because of my church I went from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity and now do my best to help lead others to Jesus Christ, God asks us to go out and make disciples, to let the world know that we are His people, kingdom people who walk in the world but not of the world.

What I once viewed as valuable and important has no meaning in Gods kingdom, I realize that all along I one of the richest men that I knew, rich in the spirit. I’m blessed to have God in my life, a wife and family who loves me unconditionally, the ability to continue to serve God in the capacity that He asks of us and faith in Him knowing that He will, because He is…..

Michael Aldridge

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